Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is scaling back its earlier target of a 2009 increase in its mobile market share, to instead be flat compared with ’08. Thursday’s Q2 earnings show it’s lost 40 percent of its share since last year, now standing at 38 percent; at least this is slightly up from Q1’s 37 percent, but only due to seasonality.
CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo is calling it “a solid performance in what was another tough quarter” … “competition remains intense, but demand in the overall mobile device market appears to be bottoming out”; he blamed the economy for that.
China was the only region Nokia increased its device volume from last year. Of the bright spots, its debut touch-screen handset, the XpressMusic 5800, shifted 3.7 million units in Q2, now a total 6.8 million since November launch.
After having launched the integrated Nokia Messaging approach, Nokia says 600,000 people have now activated an Ovi Mail account – the email system aimed at people in emerging markets.
Nokia confirmed 940 recently-announced job cuts from services (450), logistics (170) and device manufacturing (320). Headcount actually appears to have risen nearly five percent in the last year to 59,844, however, not including Nokia Siemens Networks.
Overall, Nokia lost a quarter of sales since last year, down to