Smart gains
A couple of the big handset makers announced their Q4 results in the past 24 hours and they reveal divergent fortunes for the quarter.
Nokia sold 12 percent more units than a year ago, but generated around €12 billion in sales, which was 5 percent down on a year ago. The shortfall was mainly down to Nokia Siemens Networks, however, which was down 16 percent year-on-year to €3.6 billion.
Most encouraging for Nokia will be its apparent gains in the smartphone sector. It had looked in danger of missing out to the likes of Apple, RIM and Android in this area but Nokia reckons it grew its share of the ‘converged device' market to 40 percent, from 35 percent the previous quarter.
"We grew our market share in smartphones in the fourth quarter, driven by the successful launch of new touch and QWERTY models," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia's CEO. "Our focus remains firmly on execution, especially around user experience. Here I want to highlight our move to shake up the navigation market with free walk and drive navigation on our smartphones, a good example of how we are leveraging our assets to bring real benefits to consumers."
Meanwhile, Motorola's $5.7 billion in sales was 20 percent down on a year ago and lower than had been expected. "Our first Android smartphone devices have been very well received," said Sanjay Jha, Motorola CEO of mobile devices. "We look forward to broadening our handset portfolio in 2010 with the launch of at least 20 smartphone devices around the world and continued evolution of our MOTOBLUR service."
