Nokia is going to announce their Q1 2012 financial results on April 19th, today though they issued a press release that gives investors and analysts a hint of what sort of numbers they should be expecting. Here are the important figures: 83 million mobile phones were sold during the quarter, of which 71 million were feature phones and 12 million were smartphones. Of those 12 million smartphones, 2 million of them were Windows Phones. Just yesterday we predicted Nokia would sell 2.2 million Windows Phones, so we’re proud to say we were ridiculously close. As for profits … there simply aren’t any. Nokia says their operating margin in Q1 was negative 3%. The bad news doesn’t stop there, the Finnish handset maker expects the Q2 numbers to be even worse!
“Our disappointing Devices & Services first quarter 2012 financial results and outlook for the second quarter 2012 illustrates that our Devices & Services business continues to be in the midst of transition. Within our Smart Devices business unit, we have established early momentum with Lumia, and we are increasing our investments in Lumia to achieve market success. Our operator and distributor partners are providing solid support for Windows Phone as a third ecosystem, as evidenced most recently by the launch of the Lumia 900 by AT&T in the United States. We are continuing to increase the clock speed of the company. The change is tangible, and we are proud of the way Nokia employees are quickly responding to the needs of consumers and partners.” – Stephen Elop, President and CEO of Nokia
We recommend you read the complete press release. And if all the numbers go over your head, then come to IntoMobile next week so you can read our coverage of Nokia’s Q1 2012 financial results. If you’re a Nokia fan, you’ll want to soak up as much of this data as possible.
Update 01: One more thing. The average selling price of each of the 2 million Windows Phones Nokia sold during Q1 was 220 Euros. We don’t know how that’s possible since the cheapest Lumia currently on the market, the 710, retails for more than 250 EUR in most places. We’re trying to figure this one out.
Update 02: Whoa, wait a minute! If Nokia sold 12 million smartphones, and 2 million of them were Windows Phones, that would mean for every Lumia Nokia sold, they also sold 5 Symbian devices. That’s incredible for a platform we’ve been declaring dead for well over a year.