While Apple have released financial reports indicating huge growth, other companies have been struggling in the current climate to make profits. Nokia released their results yesterday and it is clear they are facing tough times in the year ahead.
Nokia were once the leaders in the mobile space and had a good presence in the initial evolution of the smartphone. Independent research indicates that they are falling behind Apple and Samsung and have called upon the resources of Microsoft to form a partnership for the future.
The Finnish handset maker has announced a loss of €487 million from April to June on revenues of €9.275 billion. While the company is in the red now, it also highlights that their sales are down 11 percent on the previous quarter and indication that they need to revamp their lineup.
Chief executive of Nokia Stephen Elop, a ex Microsoft leader has said that the company are doing the right thing in their efforts to reverse the slide.
He said in a statement “While our Q2 results were clearly disappointing, we are executing well on the initiatives that are the most important to our longer term competitiveness. Some progress is already evident… we firmly believe that our deliberate and unwavering commitment to making the changes necessary at Nokia is the right way to deal with the disruptive forces in our industry.”
Nokia aren't alone in their battle to make profit, with almost every technology oriented company struggling during times of recession. Apple seem to be one of the few companies who are reporting huge revenue and profits.
Bloomberg Businessweek have an interesting take on the current situation for Nokia and they give five reasons why they feel that the ‘bleeding' isn't going to stop this year. One of their points is based around the strength of Android right now.
They say “Clearly, Nokia isn’t competing well in smartphones, given the growth rates shown by devices running iOS and Android. It’s the latter of the two that may have hurt Nokia the most. Why? Google is activating 550,000 Android devices per day—both handsets and tablets, but the vast majority are phones—and that number includes devices at both the top and bottom.”
Kitguru says: Will Nokia be able to climb out of this hole? Can Microsoft help steer them back on course with their operating system support? We would hate to see them gone in a few years time, The Finnish company is an integral part of mobile history.