Nokia Corporation (NOK) reported its first quarterly profit in over a year today, earning $270 million on revenue of $10.7 billion. The numbers were better than Wall Street had expected, and reflect Nokia’s deep cost cuts combined with strong sales of entry-level phones in developing markets and a healthy contribution to earnings from Nokia Siemens Networks.
The Finnish company that once dominated the mobile phone market has struggled to gain a foothold in the high-end smartphone space, and today the company said that it continues to face challenges there. Nokia said that it expects an operating margin of negative 2% in its devices and services unit during the first quarter of 2013. It blamed the expected loss on “competitive industry dynamics, continued ramp-up of our new Lumia smartphones, and the macroeconomic environment,” among other factors. Nokia sold 4.4 million Lumia phones in the fourth quarter.
For the full year, Nokia Group reported revenue of $40.3 billion and an operating loss of $2.3 billion. That compares to 2011 revenue of $50.7 billion and an operating loss of $1.4 billion, based on Thursday’s exchange rate.
Nokia’s 2012 cost cuts eliminated roughly 10,000 jobs worldwide, or 20% of the company’s workforce. Nokia is completing those job cuts this quarter.
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