Nokia Announces Q4 Profit, Sold 15.9 Million Smartphones

By Zak Islam
published

Dividend won't be payed in 2013 to save costs.

Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia has announced that it made a profit of $269 million during 2012's fourth quarter.

The figure represents a significant increase compared to the $1 billion it lost during the same period in 2011. However, revenue dropped to $10.6 billion and smartphone sales decreased by 55 percent.

To save money during 2013, Nokia confirmed that it would not be paying a dividend to shareholders. Nokia entered 2012 with $7.4 billion in cash but ended the year with a $2.9 billion loss.

The company sold 15.9 million smartphones in the quarter, representing a decrease from 19.6 million a year earlier. Nokia sold 86.3 million handsets in total during the fourth quarter, as well as 4.4 million Lumia smartphone units.

"We are very encouraged that our team’s execution against our business strategy has started to translate into financial results. Most notably we are pleased that Nokia Group reached underlying operating profitability in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2012," said Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop.

"We remain focused on moving through our transition, which includes continuing to improve our product competitiveness, accelerate the way we operate and manage our costs effectively. All of these efforts are aimed at improving our financial performance and delivering more value to our shareholders."

During the December of 2012, Nokia sold its Finland headquarters for $222 million in order to reduce costs.

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Zak Islam
11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ipwn3r456
    Nokia could of earn even more money if they adapted Android...
    Reply
  • tomfreak
    Other than the lack of App in windows phone 8, I personally thinking the Wp8 are great by itself.
    Reply
  • Marcus52
    Not so sure Android would have been a good move - going up against Samsung and everyone else in that market don't seem to be all that good a strategy over the long haul, to me. It of course depends on Microsoft keeping their solid commitment to the industry - but I think they've shown that the company (Microsoft) is finally serious about being a player in the smart phone business.

    Good to hear about someone doing better, whatever the case.
    Reply
  • vaughn2k
    I still have the Nokia 909, was released 1995...
    http://nokiamuseum.info/nokia-909/nokia-909/
    Reply
  • SAL-e
    Right. And how many people got fired of (or left) Nokia during 2012? It's good for Elop that balance sheet doesn't show the lost engineering talent at Nokia. Unless they start re-hiring those people back soon this uptake would be short lived.
    Reply
  • bluekoala
    Marcus52Not so sure Android would have been a good move - going up against Samsung and everyone else in that market don't seem to be all that good a strategy over the long haul, to me. It of course depends on Microsoft keeping their solid commitment to the industry - but I think they've shown that the company (Microsoft) is finally serious about being a player in the smart phone business.Good to hear about someone doing better, whatever the case.
    Nokia is up against Samsung android or not. They committed to Microsoft and it has not paid off. Many Android users would be quite delighted to have Nokia offer phones with Android. Nokia sells phones, not OS'es. It's not in their advantage to block themselves out of an entire league just for the sake of leveraging what's left of their relevancy to increase Microsoft's market share in the mobile market.
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    Good job Nokia! Going from high sales volume with a loss, to a lower sales volume with profit is always a good sign!

    I picked up Lumia 920s for my wife and I, and we absolutely love these phones! I work for a small nonprofit and it was wonderful that all I had to do was enter in my domain, user, and password and then had access to all of my email, contacts, calendars, and lists, very easy setup! The family room feature lets my wife and I have an easy to manage central calendar, chat, and file sharing area. And Kids Corner, while needing some improvements, works great at keeping my kiddo out of my work stuff. The Nokia apps are quite useful, and need to be sold on other devices and platforms. And while the camera is no 808 pure view, it is still the best mainstream smartphone camera on the market, and does a killer job with video and at eating motion/hand jitters.

    Not entirely without complaints. It needs an SD card next time, not having one has not been as crippling as I feared... but it definitely makes me think about what files/music I want to keep on my phone when it could be so simple to just provide a ton of storage, or allow an SD card. Also, while battery life in general is excellent, things like Skype and GPS will drain a full charge in 2-3 hours. I understand those are not simple tasks, but something needs to be done to help that burden.

    Anywho, it is a great phone, and I would easily suggest it to anyone needing a smartphone, and would highly suggest it for any kind of work/management workloads.
    Reply
  • ashesofempires04
    bluekoalaNokia is up against Samsung android or not. They committed to Microsoft and it has not paid off. Many Android users would be quite delighted to have Nokia offer phones with Android. Nokia sells phones, not OS'es. It's not in their advantage to block themselves out of an entire league just for the sake of leveraging what's left of their relevancy to increase Microsoft's market share in the mobile market.
    It has paid off, else they would not have returned to profitability. Ignoring the Android OS means that they don't have to spend extra time engineering a handset to work with multiple operating systems, deciding which version of Android to put on which phone, working with a multitude of carriers on whether or not a phone will get an update, and so on. It may cost them sales, but I bet they save more money by not expending resources than they would make by throwing their hat into a market over-saturated with Android hardware.
    Reply
  • mariusmotea
    Marcus52Not so sure Android would have been a good move - going up against Samsung and everyone else in that market don't seem to be all that good a strategy over the long haul, to me. It of course depends on Microsoft keeping their solid commitment to the industry - but I think they've shown that the company (Microsoft) is finally serious about being a player in the smart phone business.Good to hear about someone doing better, whatever the case.Few ages ago Samsung (and other) was far behind Nokia, and this was no reason for Nokia to run away from the beatle. Now they are compete even on windows phone.
    Reply
  • martel80
    Profit does not equal operating profit. Selling one's own headquarters can't be repeated forever. :)
    Reply