Nokia smartphones bomb as sales drop 27%

Nokia’s results for the fourth quarter of 2011 show just how far the company that was once the standard choice for almost every corporate mobile user has fallen.

The company reported a spectacular drop in net sales of  €2.7bn for Q4 2011, compared to the same period last year, and posted a net loss of just over €1bn.

Sales of Nokia’s smartphones dropped 27%, down from €14.8bn for the same quarter in 2010 to €10.8bn in the latest quarter. Non-smartphone sales fared slightly better, with a 13% drop to €11.9bn, down from €13.7bn in 2010. 

Net cash and other liquid assets were valued at €5.6bn at the end of the fourth quarter of 2011.

The company said it is accelerating investment in the Lumia range of smartphones, having sold more than one million Lumia devices to date. Reports on the internet suggest Nokia is preparing to launch the Lumia 900 on AT&T’s network in the US and will price the smartphone “aggressively”.

Nokia and Microsoft intend to take on the might of Apple and Google Android with the Nokia Lumia smartphone running the Windows Phone 7 operating system. The collaboration represents Microsoft’s boldest attempt to break into the smartphone market, ditching much of the enterprise approach it has traditionally taken on previous generations of Microsoft-powered smartphones.

Analyst iSupply reported that Nokia is still the third largest phone maker, although its annual growth has declined 23% to 77 million units in 2011. 

Apple ranked top in global smartphone shipments in the fourth quarter as consumers flocked to buy the newly introduced iPhone 4S, according to iSupply. 

Based on strong sales of its broad line of smartphone products, iSupply said Samsung has become the world’s largest smartphone brand for the entire year of 2011.