Nokia Add Cellphone Leads in emerging markets
The Nokia Corporation reinforced its position as the world’s top cellphone maker in a strong second quarter, reporting an increase in its market share on Thursday amid surging growth in emerging markets.Its earnings beat market expectations, and its stock rose 8 percent.
Net profit for the April-June period rose to 2.82 billion euros ($3.85 billion) from 1.14 billion euros in 2006, the Finnish company said. Sales grew 28 percent, to 12.6 billion euros from 9.8 billion euros.
Nokia sold 100 million mobile devices in the period, an increase of 29 percent over 2006, while the overall industry growth was about 14 percent, with 262 million mobile devices sold globally, Nokia said.
But the group again warned about the performance of its troubled network operations, describing market conditions as challenging because of heavy competition.
“We shall have to increase the amount and speed of cost cutting,” the chief executive, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, said, giving no details.
The greatest growth in Nokia’s handset sales, 37 percent, was in the Middle East and Africa, it said. But at 36 percent growth, sales were also strong in the Asia-Pacific region and in China.
