Nokia and Apple have both revealed their final quarterly earnings for 2012, and while both companies have done well, the markets seem to have a different views with regards to their performance.
Nokia reported a profit of £202 million for the final three months of 2012, with total net sales of £4.7 billion. From these results it finally looks as if Nokia’s decision to sign an exclusivity deal with Microsoft’s Windows Phone could be paying off, with Lumia smartphone sales reaching an impressive 4.4 million, and beating sales of Nokia’s basic Symbian phone for the first time.
Nokia sold a total of 86.3 million phones in Q4, which was actually down 24% compared to last year, but they actually sold more Lumia smartphones this year which have a far greater profit margin, thus, resulting in a healthy overall profit. The company's affordable range of Asha phones proved successful, too, with 9.3 million units sold.
The company also recently launched its HERE mapping service for multiple smartphones and PC platforms and has said that also drove profits up.
"We are very encouraged that our team's execution against our business strategy has started to translate into financial results" said CEO Stephen Elop.
"Most notably we are pleased that Nokia Group reached underlying operating profitability in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2012. While the first half of 2012 was difficult for Nokia Group, in Q4 2012 we strengthened our financial position, improved our underlying operating margin in Devices & Services, introduced the HERE brand to expand our mapping and location experiences, and drove record profitability in Nokia Siemens Networks."
Apple’s Hyper-Growth Slowing, Market Seem To Think So.
As well as Nokia’s quarterly results, computer giant Apple has also reported its figures for the last 3 months of 2012 where they reported “flat profits”, but with record revenues, and sales.
Apple’s share price amazingly dropped 10% in after hours trading as analysts were concerned about the disappointing iPhone sales, with some believing it’s losing it allure, especially in the face of cheaper alternatives from Samsung, HTC and Nokia.
Analyst also believe that Apple is missing out on lucrative emerging markets where its high-end price point is seeing consumers opt for cheaper alternatives.
Apple said it sold 47.8 million iPhones in the quarter, up from 37 million a year earlier, and 22.9 million iPads, compared with 15.4 million in the same period in 2011.
“We’re thrilled with record revenue of over $54bn and sales of over 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive.
“We’re very confident in our product pipeline as we continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world.”
Analysts, however, took rather a different view.
“The revenue number is dismal as far as what the expectations were,” said Jeff Sica at Sica Wealth Management. However, he added that Apple was suffering from a “curse of high expectations”.