The world’s biggest mobile phone maker, Nokia Corp., on Thursday posted fourth-quarter sales and profits beat expectations as it regained market share in smartphones.
Finland-based company reported net profit of €948 million ($1.33 billion) for the three months to Dec. 31, up from €576 million a year earlier and beating analysts’ expectations for €620 million.
The company’s profits came amid steep cuts. Nokia cut its R&D spending by about 9 percent to roughly 1.6 billion euros. Its sales and marketing was slashed by 18 percent to 1.05 billion euros. And the company cut its general administrative expenses by about 15 percent to about 294 million Euros compared to the year before.
Analyst Greger Johansson at Redeye said Nokia’s fourth-quarter result and first-quarter outlook beat market expectations in almost all aspects, helped by strong sales volumes and margins.
Nokia sold 126.9 million units, a 12 percent improvement over the fourth quarter in 2008 and up 17 percent compared to the previous quarter.
The company has suffered as mobile phone makers such as Apple, with its iPhone, and Research in Motion, with the Blackberry, have developed more popular smartphones.
Nokia executives noted that the company gained market share in the smartphone category. Nokia now has 40 percent market share in smartphones, up from 35 percent as of September. And the company’s overall mobile handset market share increased to 39 percent from 38 percent in September.