Nokia Q2 loss narrows to 278m euro; handset sales dip

Finnish telecom firm Nokia Corporation on Thursday reported narrowing of consolidated  loss at Euro 278 million (Rs 2,168.91 crore) in the second quarter ended June 30 helped by good performance at  Nokia Siemens Networks.

The company, however, continued to see decline in its handset business where revenue dropped by around 32 percent.  Nokia had reported a loss of Euro 1,527 million (Rs 11,912.6 crore) in the same quarter a year ago. "We benefited from another strong performance at Nokia Siemens Networks, which continued to deliver well against its focused  strategy," Nokia's chief executive officer Stephen Elop said in a statement.

The net sales of the company declined by 24 percent to 5,695 million euro (Rs 44,450 crore) in the reported quarter  compared to 7,542 million euro (Rs 58,883 crore) in posted in the same period a year ago.

"Our mobile-phones volumes in the second quarter 2013 were negatively affected by competitive industry dynamics, including intense smartphone competition at increasingly lower price points and intense competition at the low end of our product portfolio," Nokia said.

Nokia saw dip in sales of devices. The company's revenue from devices dropped by about one-third to 2,724 million  euro (Rs 21,264.41 crore)in second quarter from 4,023 million euro (Rs 31,412.68 crore)it registered last year in same quarter.

Nokia has been pushing on smartphone sales but could hold the volumes sold last year. The company reported drop of  27 percent in number of mobile devices it sold during second quarter on yearly basis.

"Compared to the second quarter 2012, our mobile-phones volumes declined across our portfolio, most notably for our  non-full-touch devices that we sell to our customers for above 30 euro, partially offset by higher sales volumes of  Asha full-touch smartphones," the company said.

The company sold 6.11 crore mobile phones in the April to June 2013 period compared to 8.37 crore handsets it sold  during same period in 2012. Nokia's smartphone sales dropped to 74 lakh units in the reported period from over 1 crore that it sold in 2012.

The company, however, said that its low priced Nokia Lumia 520 models "has enjoyed a strong start in markets like  China, France, India, Thailand, the UK, the US and Vietnam." The non-smartphone handset category also declined to 5.37 crore in Q2 from 7.35 crore handsets it sold in same period of 2012.