Looks like this is a good week for companies to preview their Q4 2012 performance. After both AT&T and Verizon touted the amount of smartphones they sold in the quarter, Nokia this morning announced that its Devices & Services unit ended up with better than projected results in Q4 2012. The Smart Devices unit managed net sales of 1.2 billion euros (around $1.572 billion U.S.) and total volumes of 6.6 million units, 4.4 million of which were Lumia smartphones. Nokia's total smartphone volumes for the quarter finished at 15.9 million units, with 9.3 million Asha full touch devices and 2.2 million Symbian phones, while the company's entire mobile phone division saw total volumes of 79.6 million units for the quarter.
Things have been a bit rough for Nokia in recent quarters, so it's understandable that the company is excited to share its better than expected Q4 numbers. The Finnish firm says that the factors driving these results for its Devices & Services division include financial performance of the mobile phones and Lumia arms that was better than what was anticipated, as well as operating expenses that were lower than what was expected.
Despite its stronger than predicted performance last quarter, Nokia still expects Q1 2013 to be a bit bumpy, forecasting that the operating margin of its Devices & Services arm to be around negative two percent. This estimate is based on several factors, including consumer demand, Nokia's continued effort to ramp up its Lumia handsets and the expectation that the first quarter of the year is frequently weak. At least Nokia still gets to tout its Q4 2012 sales figures one more time when it announces its full results for the quarter on Jan. 24.
Via Nokia
