Nokia, which holds
39% of the mobile phone market, unveiled
flat annual
sales this morning, but this belied a steepening decline in
demand for handsets.
CEO Olli-Pakka Kallasvuo said, the global economic slowdown and
unprecedented currency volatility led to a sharp drop in consumer
spending worldwide, particularly in the fourth quarter, which slid
27%. The credit crunch also affected some trade customers, he
said.
Despite the contraction of the fourth quarter, handset shipments
were up 7% to 468 million, but the average price received in the
quarter dropped from €83 a year ago to €71 per unit, a euro cheaper
than the third quarter 2008.
Kallasvuo said the industry's total mobile device shipments in
2008 reached 1.21 billion units, 6% up year on year. "Based on our
preliminary market estimate, Nokia's market share grew to 39% in
2008, compared to 38% in 2007," he said.
Sales of "converged mobile devices" or smartphones were strong,
rising to 161 million units from 117 million units in 2007, Nokia
estimated. "Our own converged mobile device volumes were 60.6
million units in 2008, compared with 60.5 million units in 2007.
Nokia shipped more than 36 million Nokia Nseries and approximately
10 million Nokia Eseries devices in 2008," Kallasvuo said.
Nokia also boosted linkage between its phone and computer
functions. It said earlier Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync will be
available in all Nokia S60 3rd edition devices, as well as
compatibility with IBM Lotus Notes Traveler on all Nokia S60 3rd
edition devices. "These enable access to over 80% of the world's
corporate e-mail accounts," Kallasvuo said.
It also moved further into value-added markets with the launch
of music download sites in 12 countries following a tie-up in the
UK with Universal Music Group International, Warner Music Group,
Sony BMG Music Entertainment and EMI Group, as well as smaller
independent music labels. It also added maps, media, messaging and
games to many of its phones.
For phone owners who have given up their PCs, Nokia updated
Ovi.com, a software as a service product for synchronising
calendar, contacts, notes and tasks between a Nokia mobile device
and www.ovi.com.
Full results are available from
Nokia's website.