Nokia Corp posted a 29 percent increase in third-quarter earnings yesterday, boosted by growing global demand for mobile devices and strong sales of low-end phones in emerging markets.
The world's top handset maker said net profit for the three months ending Sept. 30 rose to 881 million euros (US$1.05 billion), or 20 euro cents per share, from 685 million euros, or 15 euro cents per share, in the same period last year. Sales rose 18 percent to 8.4 billion euros from 7.1 billion euros a year ago.
The earnings exceeded expectations, while sales came in slightly lower than expected.
"Profitability was driven by an excellent performance from our device businesses," Nokia chairman and CEO Jorma Ollila said.
"This was backed by growing strength in our product portfolio and our ability to manage costs and execute well," he said.
Nokia said it sold a record 66.6 million units in the quarter as market share grew to 33 percent, one percentage point higher than in the same period last year, according to its own estimates.
Nokia saw the strongest growth in China and the Asia-Pacific region, while it lost market share in the Americas. It raised its full-year forecast for the global market to 780 million units from an earlier estimate of 760 million units.
Nokia expects to gain market share in the fourth quarter, but said its average selling price would drop as growth stems mainly from emerging markets.
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