Nokia Releases Q4 2007 Figures; Global Sales up, US Sales Down

Nokia is Connecting People indeed. Today the Finnish giant has released their numbers from the final quarter of what has been a phenomenal year. Most notably, Nokia has officially obtained a 40% global market share as of Q4 which is quite an accomplishment. They shipped an impressive 133.5 million handsets in Q4, bringing the 2007 total to 437.1 million. In terms of smartphone sales, Q4 Nseries sales were up 48% compared to Q4 2006 whereas Eseries sales ballooned with a 102% increase. As much exposure as the Nseries gets, it’s pretty remarkable that the enterprise sales increase was more than double that of the Nseries. Granted there is plenty more room for growth in Eseries sales; Nokia unloaded 2 million of them in Q4 2007 compared to 11 million Nseries devices. Nokia’s overall growth was spread over nearly all regions, most often reaching into the double-digits percentagewise. In fact, their sales slipped in only one target market. You guessed it, North America. In the US, where Nokia has finally begun to take a proactive approach with direct sales of higher-end devices, Q4 saw a massive decrease in sales. They shipped 5.6% fewer handsets in Q4 compared to Q3 and total sales in 2007 were down a whopping 23.3%. The US had been Nokia’s second biggest earner in 2006 and it slid down to the fifth slot in 2007. It’s no mystery that North America is a very, very different market compared to the rest of the world but it’s quite interesting that Nokia is actually losing substantial ground here. Are carrier agreements the issue? Did the blogosphere make enough noise about Nokia’s higher-end devices that they lost focus on the low-end handsets that generate far more revenue? 2008 could very well be a make it or break it year for Nokia in terms of their renewed vigor in the US.

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