Microsoft Mobile Australia's revenue halves, cops loss

Microsoft Mobile copped a drop in revenue by nearly 50 percent last year.

Revenue for the year ending 31 December fell from $112 million to $58.8 million, a drop of 47.5 percent.

The company, which was renamed from Nokia Australia last year, dipped into the red with an overall loss of $290,000, down from a profit of $470,000 the year before.

According to its financial report, Microsoft Mobile Australia operates under Microsoft Mobile Oy in Finland, which owns 100 percent of its shares.

A Microsoft spokesperson said: “Financial results for Microsoft Mobile Australia 2015 were recognised separately to Microsoft Australia due to the different operating models of the two businesses. Employees from the Mobile Devices team joined Microsoft Australia effective January 1, 2015”

Microsoft Mobile Australia was renamed from Nokia Australia on 22 May 2015, two years after Microsoft bought the mobile division for approximately $7.9 billion.

It’s been a rough year for Microsoft’s smartphone business. Last month, the vendor was forced to write off US$950 million and cut 1,850 jobs in an effort to streamline the smartphone hardware business.

Microsoft released a handful of new smartphones last year, including the flagship Lumia 950 and 95 0XL. The premium device was praised for its ‘killer app’ Contiuum, which allows users to plug their smartphone into a monitor and control it using a Windows 10 desktop interface.

Despite the strong take-up of Windows 10 - which recently passed 300 million users - the same popularity hasn’t caught on with smartphones.

According to Gartner, Microsoft sold 2.4 million Windows handsets in the first quarter of 2016, accounting for just 0.7 percent of the smartphone market.

Microsoft sold off its entry-level feature phone business to FIH Mobile Ltd and HMD Global Oy for US$350 million last month. The two companies announced their intentions to revive the Nokia brand with new Android devices.