Nokia Q2 Financials "Clearly Disappointing" Says CEO Elop: €487m Loss

Nokia has announced its Q2 2011 financial results, with an operating loss of €487m ($692m) and net sales of €9,275m, down 7-percent from Q2 2010 and 11-percent from Q1 this year. "The challenges we are facing during our strategic transformation manifested in a greater than expected way in Q2 2011" CEO Stephen Elop said, with the half-billion euro loss in operating profit a significant fall from the €439m profit made in the previous three month period.

"Smart devices" – how Nokia refers to smartphones – fell in sales 33-percent from Q1, to €2,638m, with unit sales down 31-percent to 16.7m units. Mobile phone sales, meanwhile, dropped 18-percent quarter-on-quarter, to 88.5m units, with a resulting 25-percent dive to €2,551m.

Nonetheless, Elop is upbeat. "I believe our actions to mitigate the impact of these challenges have started to have a positive impact on the underlying health of our business" he suggests. "Most importantly, we are making better-than-expected progress toward our strategic goals." That includes a greater than $1bn reduction in Devices & Services operating expense by 2013.

Still, he admits the Q2 results were "clearly disappointing." Nokia is expected to officially reveal its first Windows Phone devices in Q4 2011, though the "Sea Ray" prototype – based on the same design as the MeeGo-powered Nokia N9 - has already been leaked.