Slow Symbian and Windows Phone Sales to Impact Nokia’s Q1 Results

Nokia’s first quarter of 2012 is expected to be a slow one, similar to the last three months of the past year. 

Analysts suggest that the mobile phone maker will post disappointing financial results for the three months period ending March 2012. 

In fact, they claim that the company’s performance has been greatly impacted by the diminishing sales of Symbian handsets and the slow take off of Lumia devices. 

Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley has lowered the forecast on Nokia’s earnings for the timeframe, while waiting for the Finnish mobile phone maker to make an official announcement on the matter. 

“We are lowering our estimates ahead of Nokia’s Q1/12 earnings report as our checks indicate weak Symbian sales, seasonally soft feature phone sales, and a slow ramp in Windows smartphones,” the analyst noted, according to BGR.

Nokia’s shares still have a Hold rating, while their price target is expected to drop to $5. 

“Our global checks indicated mixed Lumia sales with price declines helping sales trends in Europe. However, our checks indicated extremely poor Symbian sales trends and seasonally soft feature phone sales, resulting in our lowered Q1/12 Devices and Services sales estimate from 4.9B to 4.7Bm,” he continues.

Moving forth, Nokia is expected to experience growth, though predictions are still mixed with uncertainty. In fact, the success of Microsoft’s entire Windows Phone platform is still questionable, the analyst notes. 

“While we believe global wireless carriers intend to diversify product portfolios and support Windows smartphones, we view 2012 as a critical year for the Windows ecosystem to gain market share,” Walkley said. 

“Given the investment necessary to grow the ecosystem, we view 2012 as a transitional year and anticipate a modest pro forma loss for Nokia.”

This is not the first time that the future of Windows Phone is said to be uncertain, nor the first time that Nokia’s ability to regain it foothold is questioned. 

However, the strong sales that Lumia 900 has seen in the US in the first days of availability suggest that Microsoft and its hardware partner might have finally found the right formula for success. Hopefully, it won’t take them too long to bring other similarly appealing devices on shelves.

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