Nokia sold a record 8.8 million Lumia smartphones in the third quarter, in its first financials since Microsoft announced the €5.44 billion takeover. The deal is expected to close in the first three months of next year.
Reporting otherwise spotty financials, Nokia said it made €1.25 billion in Lumia sales (that's $1.8 billion Australian), up a healthy 28% year on year. The company also managed a strong performance in the US, where handset sales more than tripled year-on-year to 1.4 million.
Nokia attributed stronger sales to demand for the Lumia 520, its low-cost Windows Phone 8 smartphone released in February.
Cheaper devices
But analysts felt Nokia could have squeezed more money from the growing Lumia portfolio, particularly with the arrival of high-end devices such as the Lumia 1020 and the Lumia 925. "Nokia Lumia sales are growing nicely, but almost all at the very low end," said independent analyst Benedict Evans.
Evans and other analysts pointed to Nokia’s falling average selling price (ASP) and gross margin as evidence that it’s only managing to shift cheaper Lumia handsets. ASP was down 8% year-on-year to €143, while gross margin shrank to 16% from 21% quarter-over-quarter.
Overall, Nokia shrank its losses to €91 million, from a loss of almost €1 billion a year ago. Total revenue came to €5.7 billion, down 22% from €7.3 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Nokia will focus on its network division, Nokia Siemens Networks, after the sale of its handset division to Microsoft.
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