Nokia has reported poor second quarter results including a 34 per cent slump in smartphone sales.
The struggling Finnish firm announced a net sales loss of 1.7bn, a 19 per cent drop compared with the same quarter of last year. The glimmer of joy for Nokia was a small two percent increase in mobile phone shipments to 73.5 million.
Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia said: “Nokia is taking action to manage through this transition period. While Q2 was a difficult quarter, Nokia employees are demonstrating their determination to strengthen our competitiveness, improve our operating model and carefully manage our financial resources.”
The firm said it shipped four million Lumia smartphones in the second quarter. However, the ideal situation would have been if it had sold, and not merely shipped them. Nokia is resting its hopes on the launch of Windows Phone 8 (WP8) which is believes will be a ‘catalyst’ for the Lumia brand. Current Windows Phone users won’t be upgraded to WP8, though, but Nokia has said it plans to update current Lumias up to and beyond the launch of WP8.
“We held our net cash resources at a steady level after adjusting for the annual dividend payment to our shareholders. While Q3 will remain difficult, it is a critical priority to return our Devices & Services business to positive operating cash flow as quickly as possible.” added Elop.