After February 11, 2011 doubts started surfacing about the company’s future. Shares and trust started dropping quite significantly, not only due to the announcement of their partnership with Microsoft, but also due to the leaking of an internal memo in which their CEO, Stephen Elop, attacks the company, calling Symbian a burning platform.
Today, nearly a year later, Nokia released their financial report for the fourth quarter of 2011, beating significantly beating analysts’ expectations. Their operating profit dropped 56% or €612 Million from Q4 2010. Though it rose 90% or €226 Million from Q3 2011 to €478 Million.
Their Net Sales grew by 11% or €1,02 Billion from Q3, which is 21% or €2,45 Billion lower than in Q4 2010. When it comes to devices, they shipped 113,5 Millionn devices in total, down 8% from 2010, but up 6% from Q3. At 19,6 Million their smart phones went down 31% from 2010, but up 17% from Q3. They shipped 93,9 Million feature phones; down 1% from 2010’s 95 Million and up 5% from Q3’s 89,8 Million.
Their other ventures also showed promise with NAVTEQ’s Net Sales growing 15% from 2010 and 9% from Q3. Nokia-Siemens Networks’ Net Sales went down 4% from 2010, but up 12% from Q3. Nokia’s liquid assets were at €5.6 Billion at the end of 2011, which isn’t bad at all, considering the company is currently valued at over €20 Billion. Nokia also mentioned that they received U$250 Million from Microsoft during Q4 2011 for using Windows Phone and will continue to do so for a while, meaning they’ll easily make over $1 Billion just by using Windows Phone. They also mention that they’ve sold over 1 Million Lumia devices, an exact figure isn’t given.
Overall the figures aren’t bad at all, Nokia’s profits are rising again after its sharp decline early in 2011, they’re shipping more smart devices and feature phones each quarter and things seem to be on track to ‘recovery’. With the recent launch of the Lumia range in more countries, including the US, them being competitively priced with their competitors and being praised by reviewers, it seems like the fruits of their labour have paid off, but only time will tell if choosing Windows Phone was the right step.
