Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) Shares Came Under Pressure As Third Quarter Loss Widens

On Thursday, Nokia Corporation (ADR)(NYSE:NOK) updated that its loss in the third quarter has widened to 969 million Euros, which is equivalent to $1.27 billion. The company indicated that the sharply declining sales of its smartphones since consumers are waiting for the new generation of handsets operating on Windows Phone 8 OS is the reason behind such deplorable sales condition.

An analyst mentioned that the results were strong enough to shake the confidence that Nokia would be successful in reversing its decline with Lumia. The company said it has sold 2.9 million units of Lumia smartphones in the quarter, down from 4 million in Q2. It is first quarterly decline since the product line was launched in 2011.

An analyst at Canalys in Reading, England, Pete Cunningham said that it is the first time that he is forced to doubt the comeback story of Nokia. The statistics is very poor.

Nokia’s total loss in the third quarter can be compared with a loss of 68 million Euros in the period a year back. Revenue has fallen by 19% to 7.2 billion Euros in a matter of 3 months through September because of declining sales of smartphones and more practical cellphone line. Analyst and Nokia officials believe that slowdown in sales of Lumias is because customers are waiting for handsets that operate on Windows Phone 8 software. Microsoft is planning on releasing it later this year.

The present Lumia phones run on Windows 7.5 software. Sadly, those phones cannot be upgraded to Windows 8.

Stephen Elop, Chief Executive of Nokia was not surprised when the Lumia results in the third quarter indicated that people were delaying new purchases. By next year, Nokia has plans of extending its lineup of Lumia smartphones to cover the overall range of buyers.

Shares of NOK slid 7% post-earnings, but for the week it was up 7%.