Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, reported its lowest profit in more than a decade as handset demand slumped.
First-quarter net income declined to $160 million (¤122 million), or 3 cents a share, from ¤1.22 billion, or 32 cents, a year earlier, the Espoo, Finland-based company said in a statement on Thursday. Profit had been predicted at ¤232 million, the median estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue dropped 27 per cent to ¤9.3 billion, missing the ¤9.80 billion euros analysts anticipated.
The company, which made more than a third of the mobile phones sold globally last year, has struggled in the high-end smartphone segment as Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd’s BlackBerry models took market share.
Consumers are also reining in spending amid the economic slowdown, hurting replacement sales. Nokia reiterated its forecast for a 10 per cent decline in industry unit sales this year, with a bigger drop in the first half than the second.
Net income was the lowest since the second quarter of 1996, when profit was ¤87.1 million.
Nokia rose 55 cents, or 5.4 per cent, to ¤10.68 at 1.14 pm in Helsinki. Before today, the stock had fallen 8.7 per cent this year.
