Apple ends Nokia’s 15-year reign as king of smartphone unit sales

15 years ago

“Nokia said it expected its struggling cellphone business to remain profitable in the third quarter, bringing some relief to investors after it lost its lead in the smartphone market to rival Apple,” Tarmo Virki reports for Reuters.

“Nokia reported a second-quarter underlying operating profit of 391 million euros ($555.1 million), above all analysts’ forecasts, which ranged from a loss of 35 million to profit of 285 million in a Reuters poll, boosted by royalty revenues of 430 million euros in the quarter,” Virki reports. “Nokia had forecast a 150 million royalty boost in April, and analysts said most of the remaining 280 million likely came from settling a legal dispute with Apple.”

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“Nokia’s quarterly phone sales volume dropped 20 percent from a year ago, missing analysts’ forecasts, and losing market share at a time when the overall market grew around 10 percent,” Virki reports. “Nokia said it sold 16.7 million smartphones in the quarter, falling behind Apple’s sales of 20.3 million iPhones. The Finnish company created the smartphone market in 1996 with its first Communicator model, but has failed in recent years to find an answer to the success of the iPhone..”