Despite some current and publicly fought infringement battles particularly with the ever popular Apple and their iPhone, Finnish phone maker Nokia has reported that their forage into the smartphone market resulted in their profits doubling. For the final quarter in 2009, the firm recorded net profit of 882m euros, 53per cent higher than figures for the previous year of 576m euros. The positive gains came in as a welcome relief after the firm noted falling profits for the year, from 3.9bn euros down to 260m euros.
However, the last three months of the year were strong, especially after both Blackberry owners Research in Motion and Apple rivalled the firm with high competition resulting in a 5per cent fall in global sales, falling to 12bn euros from 12.6bn euros. However, new models aided a come back at the end of the year, with chief executive for Nokia, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo saying “We grew our market share in smartphones in the fourth quarter, driven by the successful launch of new touch and Qwerty models. Our performance in smartphones, combined with continuing success in the emerging markets, helped us increase sales in our devices & services unit, both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.”
Meanwhile analysts expected that Nokia had turned an important corner after facing a touch year in 2009. Nordea analyst Marti Larjo said “It was a good set of numbers, their volumes and market share rose and smartphone markets improved. The improved profitability of the device unit promises that the profitability this year will improve from the 2009 level.”
