Nokia today shared its fourth quarter 2013 earnings, but unlike in previous quarters, the Finnish firm has chosen not to offer exact sales figures for its Lumia line or other mobile phones.
Due to the pending sale of its Devices & Services business to Microsoft, Nokia referred to the division as "discontinued operations" and only offered vague assessments on how it performed in the final months of 2013. Nokia says that Q4 2013 sales of Smart Devices — aka its Lumia line — were up from Q4 2012 but down from Q3 2013. Nokia moved 4.4 million Lumia phones in Q4 2012 and 8.8 million Lumias in Q4 2013.
Meanwhile, Nokia's Mobile Phones had the opposite experience in Q4 2013. The Finnish company reports that sales of its Mobile Phones — aka its Asha line and other basic handsets — declined on a year-over-year basis but grew from Q3 2014 to Q4 2014. Factoring in sales of both its Smart Devices and Mobile Phones, Nokia says that Q4 2013 unit volumes declined from Q4 2012 but grew from Q3 2013. Nokia also reports that the average selling price for its discontinued operations declined both on a year-over-year basis and on a sequential basis.
Because this is likely the last time that Nokia will report its phone sales before the Devices & Services division is sold off to Microsoft, it's kind of disappointing to see that the firm chose not to break out exact sales figures for its Lumia line and other phones. Still, we do know that Nokia moved somewhere between 4.4 and 8.8 million Lumias during the final months of 2013. Sales of Lumia models had been growing in 2013, going from 4.4 million in Q4 2012 to 5.6 million in Q1 2013, 7.4 million in Q2 2013 and 8.8 million in Q3 2013, but apparently Nokia couldn't keep that growth streak going during the holidays.
While we may never find out exactly how many Lumia phones Nokia moved in Q4 2013, a decline in sales during the holiday period isn't the most exciting news that Microsoft could hope to hear regarding the division that it's planning to drop over $7 billion on. That acquisition is expected to close sometime during Q1 2014, and it'll definitely be interesting to see what Microsoft does to counteract the drop in Lumia sales and boost Windows Phone's overall market share.
Nokia is currently holding a call to discuss its Q4 2013 earnings shortly, and you can bet that I'm be tuning in and listening for any extra information related to its device sales. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Nokia has confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that it sold 8.2 million Lumia smartphones in Q4 2013, resulting in a total of 30 million Lumia units sold in 2013.
Via Nokia, @WSJNordics (1), (2)
