Nokia Smartphone Sales Plummet as It Looks to a Windows Phone Future

By Geoff Spick (@Goffee71) Jul 21, 2011

With Intel and Apple reporting healthy earnings this week, how will Nokia do today as it prepares for its Microsoft-themed mobile future?

A Tale of Two Earnings

After Apple's gangbusters quarterly performance with rocketing stock price and Intel's record figures yesterday, although its share price headed down — go figure — can Nokia make it three good results in a row? The omens don't seem good, after Nokia's recent mobile performances with it being crowded out of the market by iPhone and Android devices.

Intel weighed in with massive PC chip sales; overall, Intel's GAAP results showed a record US$ 13 billion in revenue with US$ 3.9 billion in income. The only real downside was for the netbook-driving Atom line (down 15%) which is most likely as a result of the rise in tablets. There was a slightly lowered prediction for future PC sales, and when asked about the rise of tablet devices, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said,

Even after I saw the numbers yesterday from Apple and we get engaged in lots of Win8 and Android tablet design activity across the board. I believe this category is additive to computing. I don't think it's going to replace any one category."

We'll see how that pans out as apps evolve from desktop-focused tools to incorporate tablets over the coming years. Will you ever be able to do fine Photoshop work with your finger, or crunch numbers by pinching and squeezing? The person who comes up with the magic interface paradigm that solves those puzzles will become a rich person.

Over to Nokia

With the numbers just in, sales of Nokia smartphones were down by a third, with the company reporting a loss of almost US$ 500 million on net sales of US$ 13.35 billion. Shares are up in the company's home Finnish market by around 5% on the news.

Many are looking to see what Nokia has to say about its future, with anticipation for this quarter's figures already depressed due to earlier an profit warning. The company expects to get one Windows Phone 7 device out this year, but the real impact won't be until 2012.