Nokia posts €576m loss as Lumia sales slump

Release of forthcoming Windows Phone 8 cannot come soon enough for embattled handset maker

Nokia has posted a quarterly loss of €576m, its sixth successive quarterly loss, as sales at the beleaguered mobile maker continue to sag, ahead of the release of its forthcoming Windows Phone 8 range.

Nokia reported €7.24bn in revenues for the quarter, down nearly 20 percent from €8.98bn in Q3 2011.

Particularly badly hit was its Smart Devices unit, where sales plummeted to €976m from €2.19bn a year ago - a 56 percent drop.

Such declines were largely expected, as Nokia gears up for the imminent release of its Lumia 920 and 820 Windows Phone 8 handsets.

"As we expected, Q3 was a difficult quarter in our Devices & Services business," said Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop.

Elop has long warned that Nokia could expect a turbulent ride as its embrace of the Windows Phone platform presented a sea change.

But the difficulty of that transition shot up after it emerged that its current generation of Lumia handsets could not be upgraded to Windows Phone 8.

Nokia reported that it shipped just 2.9 million Lumias in its last financial quarter, down 29 percent on the four million it shifted in the previous quarter.

That drop was exacerbated by price cuts: the average selling price for a Lumia handset dropped from €180 in its second quarter to €168 in the third.

Furthermore, the Finnish handset maker said this year it was unlikely to get the Christmas sales boost it would usually expect. Nokia's new Lumias won't be available until part way through its next quarter, and it has invested significant sums in marketing the handsets.

Nevertheless, Nokia was keen to promote the prospects of its new handsets. It heralded deals signed with Virgin Atlantic to put wireless charging stations in its Heathrow flight lounges and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to put charging plates on tables in some of their cafés, as evidence of demand.

As well as moving to the Windows platform, Nokia has embarked on a massive internal restructuring programme, closing facilities and cutting staff.