There'll be guarded celebrations today at Nokia's Espoo, Finland, headquarters.
The once-dominant mobile phone company has issued preliminary figures for Q4 showing it edged into profit on better-than-expected sales of its range of Lumia smartphones running Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system.
Nokia says it sold 4.4m Lumias in the final three months of 2012, compared with 2.9m the quarter before.
But it would have been disastrous for Nokia if the sales figures hadn't gone up: Q4 saw the release of a new range of Lumias running Microsoft's new Windows Phone 8 operating system and it includes the traditionally buoyant run-up to Christmas.
Stephen Elop, chief executive, said Nokia could have sold more Lumias had there not been supply constraint problems. “We were very pleased with the consumer response [to the new Lumias],” he told reporters.
The company says its mobile phone division made a profit during Q4, but it expects a weaker showing in the first three months of 2013.
While Lumia sales are showing signs of hope, Nokia is still recording year-on-year declines.
The company is struggling to get a foothold in the modern smartphone market against the dominance of Apple's iPhone and Android devices from a range of manufacturers.
It's put all its smartphone eggs in one basket by doing a deal with Microsoft to load its devices with Windows Phone.
These latest figures are the first signs that the deal might...just might...pay off and save Nokia's future.
Its shares rose 14% on news of the Q4 sales.
Comments