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Last updated: Friday, July 17, 2009

The world’s top cell phone maker, Nokia Corp., on Thursday said second-quarter earnings fell 66 percent as the global recession sapped demand. The company scrapped its target to gain market share this year and its stock sagged. Net profit was euro380 million ($535 million), down from euro1.1 billion in the same period a year earlier. Sales tumbled 25 percent to euro9.91 billion. Analysts polled by SME Direkt had forecast a profit of euro327 million and sales of euro10.1 billion. Nokia shares fell 11 percent to euro9.86 ($13.85) in Helsinki. Nokia shipped 103 million mobile devices in the quarter, down 15 percent from a year earlier but slightly better than some analysts had expected. Meanwhile the average selling price of a Nokia handset fell to euro62 — from euro74 a year earlier. “It almost feels like Nokia has been doing a great job at keeping shipments alive but has been forced to cut prices to keep volumes up,” said Neil Mawston, a London-based telecoms analyst at Strategy Analytics. The Finnish company, which sells about four in 10 mobile devices worldwide, dropped its target to increase market share this year, saying it expects its share of the mobile market to remain unchanged from 2008. It also downgraded the outlook for its wireless network joint venture, Nokia Siemens Networks, expecting a moderate loss of market share in 2009. The company’s earlier target was to keep its share of the network market constant compared to last year. Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said the company performed well in a “tough quarter” and that demand appeared to be bottoming out after falling sharply in recent quarters. He said Nokia is accelerating its transformation into a “solutions company” that offers not only cell phones, but services and applications as the handset, Internet and media industries converge. “The mobile industry is undergoing its biggest change in its…

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Nokia Posts 66 Percent Fall in Q2 Profits, Shares Drop

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