Smart device sales are down 32% year on year. Nokia in effect announced the obsolescence of all its current Smartphone range. Would these results have been better, if Nokia had not bet its business on Microsoft’s mobile OS back in February? My guess is that they would. Earnings per share was EUR -0.01 (basic) and EUR -0.01 (diluted), compared with EUR 0.16 (basic) and EUR 0.16 (diluted) in January-June 2010. Loss was EUR 261 million (profit EUR 279 million), based on a loss of EUR 24 million (profit of EUR 576 million) attributable to equity holders of the parent and a loss of EUR 237 million (loss of EUR 297 million) attributable to non-controlling interests. Loss before tax was EUR 141 million (profit before tax EUR 632 million). In the period from January to June 2011, net financial expense was EUR 74 million (EUR 141 million). Says the release, which report an 11% decline in sales quarter-on-quarter and an operating loss: The challenges we are facing during our strategic transformation manifested in a greater than expected way in Q2 2011.
Its future smartphone strategy will be based on Windows Phone. In February this year, Nokia announced that it was abandoning its Linux-based MeeGo smartphone OS, then in development, and that Symbian would be reserved for low-end phones. Sales of the current model immediately dived, and the company went bankrupt. The reference is to Osborne Computer Corporation, a pioneer of early personal computers, which announced the next generation of its range long before it was available. The Osborne effect is a term referring to the unintended consequence of the announcement of a future product ahead of its availability and its impact upon the sales of the current product.