Nokia reports brutal sales drops in Q1 2012

For the past couple of weeks, it was being predicted that Nokia‘s financial outlook would look bleak once the figures got revealed for the first quarter of 2012. The negative predictions led to share prices dropping last week, but things have gone from bad to worse for the Finnish phone giant as they’ve released their Q1 sales figures.

Nokia have reported a staggering $4 billion drop in sales figures for the first quarter of the year, leaving their sales figures at $9.7 billion. Within this, smartphone sales have dropped by a painful 51% . Nokia have attributed these figures to Android and Apple‘s increasing grip on Asian markets, noting that sales of their phones in China have dropped by 70%.

Having more or less anticipated these figures, Nokia have already begun making changes in their corporate personnel, with Colin Giles stepping down as Executive Vice President of sales at the company. Rather than directly replace him, his responsibilites will be passed on to their markets EVP Niklas Savander. Nokia have stated reason for this as being to  ’reduce a layer of sales management to ensure greater customer focus,’ though streamlining the company in this way can also be seen as a much-needed cost-cutting measure.

Can Nokia weather the financial storm they’re in? Their recent Lumia range has certainly been getting plenty of attention, with their flagship Lumia 900 due to be released in the UK April 27th. Maybe that will mark a much-needed turn in their fortunes.

[Source: TechCrunch]