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Apr. 18, 2008

Yesterday, Nokia reported its quarterly earnings, and the phone maker also predicted an overall slowing of the global handset market.

As expected, and before a one-time special charge, the world’s largest handset manufacturer said its profit per share increased to 61 cents from 41 cents year-over-year.

But after including its one-time charge, its actual earnings were only 51 cents per share.

Additionally, Nokia said it now expects the handset market to fall this year, although sales in emerging markets will still boost shipments by as much as 10 percent on average.

In response to the earnings report, Martin Garner, mobile director at research consultancy Ovum said “this is the first set of results reported by Nokia under its new reporting structure, so it isn't simple to do a direct comparison on all aspects."

Garner also noted "it's still a very healthy set of results, underlining the strength of Nokia's phone portfolio and its market position in most areas.”

In a statement, Nokia said that its changed outlook “primarily reflects the negative impact of the recently weakened U.S. dollar, the general economic slowdown in the U.S. and possibly going forward some economic slowdown in Europe.”

Nokia said it sold a little over 115.47 million handsets during its latest quarter, and estimated its market share at 39 percent, slightly below industry analysts’ expectations of 39.7 percent.

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Source: Nokia.