Nokia’s North American Breakout
Investor confidence in Nokia appears to be on the upswing. A narrower third-quarter loss and an upbeat forecast from the mobile phone company pushed its shares up eight percent Tuesday morning.
And, indeed, there is good reason to celebrate Nokia’s third-quarter earnings. The company once again posted an increase in sales of its Lumia smartphone, shipping 8.8 million of them during the quarter. That’s a nice bump up from the record 7.4 million it sold in the quarter prior, and a vast improvement over the 2.9 million it sold during the same period a year ago.
Another highlight: Nokia’s handset sales in North America. There, the Finnish company recorded sales of 1.4 million units in the third quarter. That’s nearly triple the number it sold in the second quarter, and far more than the 300,000 units it shipped in the year-ago period.
Now, 1.4 million smartphones shipped in North America isn’t exactly a triumph in absolute terms — companies like Apple and Samsung shipped many, many more — but it’s progress, and a promising development for Nokia’s device business, which is to be acquired by Microsoft early next year. Great news for the software giant, which is paying $7.2 billion for it in the hope that Nokia’s smartphone expertise will make Windows Phone relevant in a market dominated by Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone.