Nokia Q1 profit down by 90 percent

16 Apr 2009 at 18:52 GMT Timo Poropudas

Nokia posted an expected 27 percent drop in net sales for the first quarter to EUR 9.3 billion and a slightly worse than anticipated 90 percent drop in profits to EUR122 million.

"Regarding the health of the overall mobile device market, the inventory already in the sales channels decreased substantially during Q1 due to extensive destocking by operators and distributors. This adversely impacted our sales volumes in the quarter. However, it has also resulted in the demand picture becoming more predictable as we enter the second quarter," commented Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.

Nokia's Devices & Services net sales were EUR 6.2 billion, down 33 percent year on year and down 24 percent sequentially. Services net sales reached EUR 150 million, up 79 percent year on year and down 5 percent sequentially.

Nokia's mobile device volumes of 93.2 million units was down 19 percent year on year and down 18 percent sequentially. Nokia estimated industry mobile device volumes to be 255 million units, down 14 percent year on year and down 16 percent sequentially.

Nokia estimated its mobile device market share to be 37 percent in Q1 2009, down from 39 percent in Q1 2008 and unchanged from Q4 2008.