14 DAY TRIAL // Nokia just announced that during the second quarter of 2008 (April, May and June) it has shipped 122 million mobile phones worldwide. This represents 40% of the total number of phones sold by all the handset manufacturers in the same period, a number estimated at 303 million units, and reaffirms the Finnish company's No. 1 in the global mobile industry.
The 122 million mark further represents a 5.6% increase when compared to the number of handsets shipped by Nokia in first quarter of 2008 and a 21% increase when compared to the second quarter of 2007.
In Q2 2008, Nokia's phones were sold at an average selling price (ASP) of 74 Euros ($117) - a relatively low ASP which shows, once again, that most of the Nokia handsets bought by users are affordable, low-end ones. Still, there were over 10 million Nseries and about 2 million Eseries smartphones sold in the quarter.
The net sales reported by Nokia for the second quarter of 2008 are of 13.2 billion Euros (including sales from services and from Nokia Siemens Networks' operations), while the company's net profit for the quarter is of 1.103 billion Euros.
By geographic area, the number of Nokia handsets sold in Q2 2008 looks like this:
1. Asia Pacific - 36.4 million units
2. Europe - 27.1 million units
3. Middle East and Africa - 21.1 million units
4. Mainland China - 17.6 million units
5. Latin America - 15.3 million units
6. North America - 4.5 million units
As you can see, China is the only country where the number of sold handsets is comparable with the numbers for an entire continent. This is due to the fact that, besides being the most populous country in the world, China is also the world's largest mobile market, currently totalizing about 565 million subscribers.
"Nokia delivered increased device market share and strong underlying profitability in the quarter," says Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia's CEO. "Looking at the rest of the year, we are optimistic and have had good feedback about the broad range of new products we expect to sell in our device business. In the second quarter we saw good momentum in the early stages of our services and software business, and we believe that the next wave of growth will be driven by devices linked with services. On the infrastructure side, Nokia Siemens Networks delivered a second quarter with good net sales growth and improved profitability."
For the third quarter of 2008, Nokia estimates that the number of handsets shipped will slightly grow, while the 40% market share will remain at about the same level.