Nokia: hopes its 770 internet tablet could help fortunes
Finnish mobile manufacturer Nokia had some good news yesterday: profits were up. But the big news, at least for financial observers, was that it wasn't so happy about the future.
The firm said third-quarter earnings will come in around... three-quarters of the level investors had expected. Nokia said third-quarter sales will be [around] £5.5bn, also below expectations.
The problem isn't that Nokia's not shipping enough phones - it sold 61 million units last quarter, that's around a third of all new phones around the world - but that the price of phones is coming down. Nokia have intrinsic benefits over their rivals: long-standing domination thanks to durable products with familiar and intuitive interfaces. They're putting a lot more emphasis on 3G and smartphones these days, in a market where (particularly in developing countries) the demand is for low-cost handsets.
Can they keep dominating the market, or is the future bleak for Finns?
