Nokia result shows mountain to climb

There was a glimmer of hope for Nokia when the phone company announced its 2012 results last month.

The headline figure in the Nokia result – a loss of €2.3 billion – is shocking. The company made a €439 million profit in the fourth quarter. In the same quarter a year earlier the company lost €954 million.

Phone makers usually have a good quarter as sales take off in the run-up to Christmas. Some of the improved profit is due to the company dumping 25 percent of its staff during 2012. Nokia’s figures also include revenue from the network division, Nokia Siemens Networks, which had a strong quarter.

There’s talk that Nokia may have turned a corner. That’s premature.

Nokia result shows phones not selling enough

According to research from Canaccord Genuity, Nokia’s phone business made a loss for the 2012 year and only broke even in the fourth quarter. The same report also shows every phone maker except Apple and Samsung lost money during the year.

So can we say Nokia is on the comeback trail? Not yet. It is too soon.

The Lumia 920 is a great phone, the best phone on the market at the moment yet that’s not enough. All it has done is buy Nokia breathing room. Nokia needs to sustain the Windows Phone 8 momentum and pick up sales lower down the market with the Lumia 620.

Then we can talk about turning corners. It’s unlikely, but not impossible.