Nokia loses $1.7 billion, but Lumia phones kept it from being much worse
Nokia posted a second-quarter loss of as much as $17.4 billion,聽with year over year net sales loss of 26 percent, according to an earnings聽announcement the company today.
This marks a fifth straight quarter of losses for Nokia. After 14 years聽as the leading mobile-phone manufacturer, a position it lost earlier聽this year, its value has dropped 64 percent this year to its lowest value聽since 1994.
Since Apple鈥檚 introduction of the iPhone in 2007, Nokia has lost $117聽billion of value. It now has a market cap of 6 billion Euros.
CEO Stephen Elop hopes the companies line of powerful Lumia聽smart phone will stem that loss.聽Nokia has shipped 4 million Lumias phones, which runs on the Microsoft聽Windows Phone OS.
Under Elop, the company ditched its struggling mobile platform,聽Symbian, and put its chips on the relatively well received Microsoft聽mobile operating system. However, because the current Lumias cannot be聽upgraded to the upcoming Windows Phone 8 OS, there is some fear聽that those numbers will not be sustained. Elop, though, believes the upcoming phone OS is聽an opportunity.
鈥淲e plan to provide updates to current Lumia products over time,鈥� he聽said in a statement. 鈥渨ell beyond the launch of Windows Phone 8. We believe the聽Windows Phone 8 launch will be an important catalyst for Lumia.鈥�
In addition to the Lumia, other bright spots in an otherwise dark聽picture include North American sales, which are up 45 percent, and the聽company鈥檚 cash position, of about $5.17 billion, is better than聽analysts anticipated.
Apple鈥檚 iPhone and Google鈥檚 Android system are challenging both Nokia聽and RIM, the makers of the Blackberry, eating away at their once聽dominant positions in the mobile ecosystem.
