Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia published their Interim Report for Q2 2013 and January-June 2013, highlighting the company’s profits and the sales of it’s various mobile handsets.
According to the report, Nokia Group’s net sales in Q2 2013 were EUR 5.7 billion, down 3% quarter-on-quarter, but “Lumia Q2 volumes increased 32% quarter-on-quarter to 7.4 million units, reflecting strong demand from customers for a broadened Lumia product range.”
Overall, the company’s “mobile phone Q2 volumes decreased 4% quarter-on-quarter to 53.7 million units, but demonstrated some signs of recovery in the latter part of the quarter.”
Nokia Group’s net sales for the first half 2013 decreased 22% year-on-year. “We’re pleased to report an underlying operating profit for the fourth consecutive quarter on a group level. We benefited from another strong performance at Nokia Siemens Networks, which continued to deliver well against its focused strategy. With our recent announcement to purchase Siemens’ 50% stake in Nokia Siemens Networks, we believe we will create value for Nokia shareholders and look forward to strengthening Nokia Siemens Networks as a more independent entity,” said Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO.
Commenting on the mobile phone business, Elop said that Nokia has seen some signs of recovery. “Our Mobile Phones business unit started to demonstrate some signs of recovery in the latter part of the second quarter following a difficult start to the year. Also, towards the end of the second quarter, we started to ship the Asha 501, which brings a new design and user experience to the highly competitive sub-100 USD market.
While we are very encouraged by the consumer response to our innovations in this price category, our Mobile Phones business unit is planning to take actions to focus its product offering and improve product competitiveness,” he said.
“Overall, Lumia volumes grew to 7.4 million in the second quarter, the highest for any quarter so far and showing increasing momentum for the ecosystem. During the third quarter, we expect that our new Lumia products will drive a significant part of our Smart Devices revenue,” Elop concluded.
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
