Nokia admits its grip is slipping

THE WORLD'S NUMBER one handset vendor, Nokia, has admitted that its sales figures for Q1 2004 will be below predictions.

The company says that global mobile phone volume growth is estimated to have been in excess of 25 per cent, in Q1 2004 but Nokia's own volumes grew by only 19 per cent.

It says, "Mobile Phones sales declined in Europe and Asia due to lower than expected volumes and a product mix weighted more towards the low end. Due to certain gaps in its product portfolio, mainly in the mid range, the company was not able to fully capitalize on positive market developments."

Interestingly the newly formed Enterprise Solutions division performed better than expected. The Multimedia division is also faring well, which is a bit of a surprise given that the company's games machine, the N-Gage, isn't doing as well as anticipated.

Nokia also says that as it brings more products to market later in 2004, it expects sales to improve again. It will be interesting to see who is benefiting from Nokia slight decline. µ