Nokia lowers expectations

Sales down

Nokia has reduced its sales expectations for the second quarter of 2010 and for the entire year, partly blaming competition at the high end of the market.

The news comes a week before the official launch of the iPhone 4 one of the high-end devices that Nokia's handsets will be up against.

Nokia also said that the recent depreciation of the Euro had affected the Finnish mobile manufacturer's cost of goods sold, operating outgoings and its global pricing strategy.

The firm now expects net sales of its devices and services during the second quarter of 2010 to be either at the lower end of, or slightly below, the 6.7 billion (5.6 billion) to 7.2 billion (6 billion) originally forecast.

As for the entire year, Nokia believes its mobile device market share to be slightly lower than 2009, the opposite of what the firm had planned.

In better news, the company still expects to see its mobile device volumes to increase by around 10 per cent in 2010 over 2009.

Nokia will reveal its full second quarter results and more information on its 2010 outlook on 22 July.

Despite the serious competition that the Finnish firm is facing, recent data from analyst firm Gartner showed that Nokia's Symbian still had the greatest market share among the top operating systems. Furthermore, in terms of handsets, Nokia had the greatest market share.

Research vice president at Gartner, however, warned that the manufacturer will continue to feel pressure from the likes of HTC and RIM.

Nokia's most recent addition to the high-end of the mobile market is the N8 smartphone.

Tom Brewster

Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.

He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.