Nokia Q3 results are out: phone sales declining, operating loss

Nokia reported its Q3 performance and sales were down across the board. Compared to their Q2 performance, however, things are starting to look up. Q3 should be Nokia's last quarter without Windows Phone handsets in the mix - the company is at a "make it or break it" point, with its future laying in the basket of Microsoft's mobile OS.

Let's go over the figures - net sales for Nokia's Devices & Services department were down 25% Year-on-Year (YoY) and down 1% sequentially. This resulted in operating profit going down 84% YoY to €132 million. Much better than the €247 million loss from the previous quarter, but the company as a whole still posted an operating loss of €71 million.

Total number of Nokias sold for the quarter was down 3% since last year, with smartphones taking a big 38% hit, while feature phones were actually up 8% YoY.

The Average Selling Price for Nokia phones in general fell - their feature phones now go for €32 on average (note that Nokia is selling €20 or so phones in droves). Smartphones go for €131 on average, down from the €133 ASP of last year.

Nokia takes the affordability of their phones as a point of pride. The big question is what happens when Windows Phone finally comes into play - a while back we heard they got the go-ahead from Microsoft to create a custom version ('Tango') intended to run on affordable WP7 handsets.

Anyway, looking at Nokia's numbers, both NAVTEQ and Nokia-Siemens Networks have been losing money in the recent quarters (the two accounted for €159 million in losses in Q3). We wonder what Stephen Elop's plans for the two are.

Check out Nokia's press release for a few more numbers and if you want all the details, have a look at the full report (PDF). http://www.nokia.com/results/Nokia_results2011Q3e.pdf