Nokia Sees Sales Plummet in China

Nokia said its net sales fell 23% year-on-year on a constant currency basis to 7.24 billion euros in the third quarter of 2012. On the same basis, net sales in Nokia's devices and services division were down 36% and sales at Nokia Siemens Networks were down 3%.

Nokia's devices and services sales fell 78% in Greater China and 51% in North America. Nokia said: "The sequential decreases in net sales and volumes in North America were primarily due to lower operator and distributor demand for Lumia as well as our efforts to prepare the distribution channel for the upcoming sales start of new devices.....Net sales in China decreased sequentially primarily due to lower net sales of our Lumia and Symbian devices, primarily reflecting competitive pressures."

Nokia said it expects the fourth quarter to be "a challenging quarter in smart devices, with a lower-than-normal benefit from seasonality in volumes, primarily due to product transitions and our ramp up plan for our new devices."

However, Stephen Elop, Nokia CEO, noted: "In our mobile phones business, the positive consumer response to our new Asha full touch smartphones translated into strong sales. And in Q3, our mobile phones business delivered a solid quarter with sequential sales growth and improved contribution margin." source: Nokia statement