Last news from Nokia..

Have you read this?


Article #1
from Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...7&pageNumber=1

Quote:

Nokia Sees Weak Profits, Shares Hammered Fri Apr 16, 2004 01:47 PM ET By Brett Young HELSINKI (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Nokia shocked investors for the second time in 10 days on Friday as it admitted cheaper, funkier phones from rivals were eating into its market lead, sending its shares sharply lower. Nokia, which makes more than one in three handsets sold globally, said second-quarter earnings would fall and sales could also drop. It said margins at its key mobile phones unit would be hit until its more competitive models hit the shops. "There have been execution delays. We should have been six months ahead, ideally, with new product introductions," Chief Executive Jorma Ollila told a conference call. "(Market) share is important, and we want to make sure we reach stability ... sooner rather than later," he said. The outlook confirmed analysts' fears Nokia's patchy handset portfolio was wilting against rivals like U.S. Motorola and Korea's Samsung Electronics, which offer a broader line of medium-priced phones with color screens and built-in cameras. Nokia, whose handsets were the market standard for years, has lagged innovations in design by competitors, especially in fold-away phones which have seen a boom in popularity. Samsung earlier posted record earnings, said it expects its market share in January-March to have risen by almost four percentage points to 14 percent, and called for sales to continue rising in the second quarter. "It does not look good. It is obvious that they are losing market share on mobile phones, and the guidance indicates that next quarter will be worse than we expected," said analyst Urban Ekelund at Swedish research group Redeye. "This is bad, there is no room for explanations ... The second quarter will be weakish and eyes are already on the second half," added analyst Jussi Hyoty at FIM Securities. Q2 EPS TO SINK Nokia said second-quarter earnings per share (EPS) would be between 0.13-0.15 euros, well below the underlying figure of some 0.19 euros from a year ago and missing all expectations in a Reuters poll that called for an EPS of 0.18 euros. It said group sales would be flat to lower in the second quarter versus a fall of three percent forecast in the poll. Ollila said overall handset volumes in the quarter should be slightly higher. Nokia shares closed down 9.33 percent at 12.25 euros, pulling the DJ Stoxx tech index 2.75 percent into the red. The share earlier hit a 13-month low of 11.99 euros, and has underperformed the index by over 15 percent this year. In New York, the share sank over nine percent, casting a pall over the tech-heavy Nasdaq. Rivals Ericsson, Siemens and Alcatel all gained in Europe as investors saw a shift from the Finnish firm. "Most definitely now people are switching out of Nokia into Ericsson. Nokia is losing market share in the mid-market and Ericsson is a recovery story. People are placing their bets," said Daniel Broby, chief investment officer at BankInvest, who manages seven billion euros ($8.6 billion) of funds. HOLE TRUTH Nokia posted January-March EPS of 0.17 euros, above an underlying 0.16 euros from a year ago and in line with a warning from April 6 that spooked investors as Nokia said it could not grow its profits quickly despite a booming market. The firm has been hit by a hole in its handset portfolio, unable to offer mid-priced phones with color screens, cameras and "clamshell," or fold-away, designs. The gap will not be filled until toward the end of the year. Nokia said mobile phone volumes grew by a heady 29 percent annually in the first quarter, but it only increased shipments by 19 percent. The operating profit at its core mobile phones unit plunged by a quarter to 1.09 billion euros. The admission that its handset portfolio was not up to scratch is especially humiliating for Nokia, which for years prided itself on first identifying different segments within the market, and then setting the trend for many of them. 40 PERCENT STILL HOLDS In 2001, with Nokia's global market share approaching its 40 percent target, Ollila speculated the firm could top that. He reiterated the target on Friday despite Nokia's market share falling to 35 percent in the quarter from 38 percent in the last quarter of 2003, but analysts said Nokia will now have to run harder just to stand still. "Nokia's main priority must now be to stabilize its market share by Q3 and hope that it can reverse the current decline in Q4," said Ben Wood at Gartner Dataquest. "In the face of aggressive competition from Motorola, Samsung, LG and Siemens this is going to be a challenging goal to achieve." (Additional reporting by Tarmo Virki, Patrick McLoughlin in Stockholm and Lucas van Grinsven in Amsterdam) ($1=.8118 Euro) © Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

Article #2
from Telecomtv.com: http://www.telecomtv.com/newComms.php?cd_id=3892

Quote:

Samsung soars as Nokia plummets 16/04/04 12:25 - by Martyn Warwick The extent of Samsung's mounting challenge to Nokia became even clearer today with the release of the Korean manufacturer's full financial figures for Q1, 2004. They show that profits at the world's second-biggest maker of mobile handsets are at record levels having almost tripled year-on-year. Furthermore, the company forecasts that this record-breaking run will continue - certainly as far as Q2 and perhaps on into subsequent quarters. Net income for the three months ended March 31 was 3.1 trillion won (that's about ˆ3 billion) up from 1.1 trillion won in the same period last year. Sales rose by 50 per cent year-on-year on strong demand for mobile phones, rising prices for microprocessor chips and increased sales of flat panel TVs. In Q1, Samsung sold 20.1 million mobile terminals, (up 52 per cent) another record, knocked Nokia's efforts into a cocked hat, and pushed sales at Samsung's telecoms arm up to 4,580 billion won. Furthermore, Samsung generated a profit margin of over 20 per cent on every handset sold, that's what, hitherto, only Nokia has ever been able to achieve. Now though, it's become a two horse race and Nokia seems to be tiring. Nonetheless, and despite the good news, Samsung's shares (which have risen by 31 per cent since January 1 this year) have fallen 2.8 per cent this morning as investors took their profits and went out to buy something nice for the weekend. Meanwhile a subdued Nokia announced a 16 per cent drop in Q1 profits and forecast reduced revenues for a fourth consecutive quarter as customers continued to desert the company's perceivedly 'old fashioned' offerings in favour of the smaller 'clamshell' designs now prominent in the portfolios being offered by the likes of Samsung, LG and Siemens and so conspicuously absent from the Finnish manufacturer's range of products. The company's shares were down 4 per cent as Telecom TV News went to press this lunchtime. In a statement made late this morning to the Helsinki stock exchange, Nokia said that Q2 sales will be "little changed to slightly below" the same period for 2003. At first reading that might not sound too bad, but it has to be remembered that the mobile handset market is powering along like a runaway locomotive and it is beginning to look more and more as if Nokia has not only missed the train but hasn't even made it to the station yet. Taking this on top of last week's announcement that Q1 revenues fell back by 2 per cent, and with Nokia's handset sales rising at 19 per cent compared with an average growth for the rest of the industry of 25 per cent, one can begin to appreciate the true depth and scope of Nokia's problems. The fact is that Nokia has lost its populist touch and is paying the price. The company was openly (and very foolishly) contemptuous of the clamshell handsets that other manufacturers produced in response to evident consumer demand and then committed the ultimate sin of paying no more than perfunctory lip service to its customers needs, despite its oft-repeated mantra that it is totally a customer-centric organisation. Perhaps that should be amended with a codicil to the effect of "....but only when the board thinks the customer is right." To make matters worse Nokia did what it did just as mobile phone sales picked up and demand burgeoned. The Gartner Group says that worldwide sales of mobile handsets will grow by 12 per cent this year, to somewhere in the region of 590 million units. Nokia has already missed the wave and is now paddling like hell in a rip tide in a belated attempt to steer clear of rocks it should have seen a long time ago. Last week Nokia announced that it is to speed up the introduction of new handset models (including a clamshell) and will launch 40 new ones this year alone. Samsung responded by saying that it has plans to launch 50 new handsets into the domestic Korean market alone this year and might introduce as many again globally. The gloves are off and Nokia is already down on points in the opening rounds of what is sure to be a very long world championship scrap.

Any opinion?

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the rise of samsung is temeraly i think.
they mostly sell clamshell phones, but all the other brands are launching them 2. so in the next Q's will normally see samsungs share drop.

as for nokia, its normal i think, the other brands have become stronger. but no need to worry, nokia is still on top, and they still have profit. i saw on some forums nokia fans complaining, but if you're a nokia fan stay true to your brand, i'm not a nokia fan, but some people just overreact. they promised to lauch about 40 new phones this year, so lets hope for the fans that there are some nice things in it. and that the launch the stuff in massive numbers

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bart

I think the problem of Nokia is more due to the manufacturing process than the technological content of their phones. Tell me, how an European manufacturer can compete -in the long term- with some big Asian industrial groups such Samsung, LG, SE, etc. ??

My opinion is that they are late because they can't produce new phones as soon as possible. Today Nokia must outsource his production.

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This is astonishing. But I think they're gonna recover, or so I hope. They must speed up the process of manufacturing and distribution of their phones, they're taking too much time. 7255, for example, is gonna be out at 4Q. Motorola V710 is due first half of 2004.. I like Nokia, I own a Nokia.. But I can't wait forever, so what can I do apart from buying the Mot.. Besides, the Motorola overcomes the 7255 tech, so...

I wish they recover... They must update themselves.. Do some market research, what does people want and produce that... In a short time.

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in terms of tech and specs, nokia isn't the best, that everybody knows. but then have some nice designs, but for a design alone you don't buy a phone right.

that moto will be delayed abit, like all moto's, and all those new moto's aren't really great. for years i have wonderd why moto is nr 2 and i'm still wondering that, why are all those americans buying those motos.

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