Nokia made a profit of À439 million ($585 million) in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to recently released financial
reports. Full year results for 2012 saw that the losses in
previous quarters still puts the company at an overall loss of À2.3 billion ($3 billion), despite the Lumia-based sales
uptick seen in the last quarter.
While the $585 million profit is a complete turnaround from the $775 million loss in the third quarter, Nokia has decided not to pay a dividend to shareholders, citing a need for "strategic flexibility." The profit is a significant improvement on the $1.2 billion loss for Q4 2011, the same period the previous year, despite sales slumping 20% to À8 billion ($10.7 billion). The phone manufacturer ended 2012 with À4.4 billion ($5.8 billion) in net cash reserves, up from the À3.6 billion ($4.7 billion) of last year.
Device sales were
claimed before the financial report as having "exceeded expectations," with 86.3 million units being sold in the quarter. Lumia smartphones made up 4.4 million of the figure, a rise from the 2.9 million sold in Q3, and while Smart Device volumes rose 5-percent quarter-on-quarter to 6.6 million units, the Q4 figures are still a 66-percent drop compared to Q4 2011.
Regionally speaking, the sales of devices in North America for the quarter has risen 133-percent compared to Q3 to 700,000, a 40-percent increase on Q4 2011. Net sales in North America has also risen to 196 million ($261 million) for Q4, a rise of 444-percent on the results of the third quarter, and a 270-percent year-on-year change. The North American increases are the only real high-points for the yearly results, with all other regions reporting a year-on-year loss, including a 69-percent drop in shipments to Greater China.
The Nokia Siemens section of the company reached net sales of À13.7 billion ($18.3 billion) for the year, a 2-percent drop from 2011, and an operating loss of À799 million ($1 billion).
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