Nokia has just announced a total operating loss of $754 million for the third quarter of 2012, a drop in its net cash from $US6.6 billion last year to $US5.5 billion now, and declining Lumia sales. Oh dear.
The news perhaps shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Quarter after quarter Nokia seems to announce dire financial news: just three months ago it announced that it had sold 4.8 million fewer phones in total compared to the same period last year. Even CEO Stephen Elop had warned that that quarter three was going to be “challenging”.
Turns out it was! The Lumia range has been stagnating prior to the launch of new models, not helped by the news that older models would not be upgraded to WinPho 8. That means it’s sold just 2.9 million of the handsets, compared to 4 million in the second quarter. In fact, it’s the first time Lumia sales have dropped since the range was launched.
Combine that with dropping Symbian sales, and no wonder the Finns are having a tough time. Unsurprising, then that the company forecasts a challenging fourth quarter, too, predicting a poor holiday performance owing to “product transitions and our ramp up plan for our new devices”. That better be some ramp up plan, guys. [Nokia]