Phone giant Nokia on Thursday said its smartphones are expecting revival as it sells 7.4 million Lumia in Q2 2013.
For comparison, BlackBerry sold 2.7 million new phones on the BlackBerry 10 platform in its latest quarter. ( Apple, BlackBerry, LG fail to grab top 5 smartphone market share in India in Q1 2013 )
Nokia noted that Lumia 520, its budget device on the Windows Phone 8 platform received attraction in markets like China, France, India, Thailand, Vietnam the U.K. and U.S.
Nokia’s confidence stems from the fact that Lumia volume at 7.4 million in the second quarter was the highest for any quarter so far.
IDC earlier said smartphone shipments will grow 32.7 percent in 2013 to 958.8 million units from 722.5 million last year. 2013 will mark the first year that smartphone shipments surpass those of feature phones, with smartphones expected to account for 52.2 percent of all mobile phone shipments worldwide.
“We expect that our new Lumia products will drive a significant part of our Smart Devices revenue,” said Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia.
Nokia’s smartphone volumes increased sequentially to 11.7 million units in Q2 2013 compared to 11.1 million in the first quarter 2013.
Besides Lumia, the phone major sold 4.3 million Asha full-touch smartphones in mobile phones category.
Recently, Nokia started shipping the Asha 501, a smartphone in the sub-$100 market.
Nokia’s Mobile Phones business unit is planning to take actions to focus its product offering and improve product competitiveness.
Despite selling 7.4 million Lumia phones, its sales from Devices & Services business reached EUR 155 million in Q2 2013 against EUR 191 million in the second quarter 2012 due to the divestment of Vertu.
The sequential Devices & Services Other net sales were higher in the second quarter 2013, compared to EUR 134 million in the first quarter 2013, due to higher IPR income.
Net sales decreased in all regions primarily due to lower sales in Mobile Phones business unit.
The largest decline in net sales was in Greater China followed by Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America.
In Greater China and Europe the net sales declines were primarily due to lower sales in Smart Devices business unit whereas in Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America the net sales declines were primarily due to lower sales in Mobile Phones business unit.
Nokia’s fresh strategies for emerging telecom markets are not clear.
Emerging markets will account for 64.8 percent of all smartphones shipped during 2013, which is up from 43.1 percent in 2010, IDC said.
In 2013, Deloitte predicts that global shipments of smartphones, defined as any device perceived by consumers as being a smartphone, is likely to exceed by one billion units for the first time and a large proportion of it will come from India.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
