Nokia posts third quarter loss; Mobile device demand improving

Nokia saw weak mobile phone sales in the third quarter, but said the mobile device industry won't fall as much as it had feared in 2009.

Overall, Nokia reported a surprise loss of 559 million euro, or $836 million. The company on Thursday said it wrote down the value of its telecom equipment unit, Nokia Siemens. Nokia third quarter revenue was down 20 percent from a year ago and down 1 percent from the second quarter.

Nokia is a good global demand indicator for mobile devices even though it's largely a non-entity in the U.S. Nokia shipped 108.5 million mobile devices, down 8 percent from a year ago, but up 7 percent from the second quarter. Nokia estimated that its mobile device market share held steady at 38 percent (Techmeme, statement, PDF results).

According to Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo mobile device demand "improved in many markets." However, Kallasvuo said that component shortages hurt volume and sales.

For 2009, Nokia projected mobile device industry volume to be about 1.12 billion, down 7 percent from a year ago. Nokia had projected a decline of 10 percent. For the Nokia-Siemens telecom equipment venture Nokia said that the industry will fall about 5 percent in 2009. Nokia had projected a decline of 10 percent for the industry. Nokia Siemens, however, will lose more market share than expected, the company said.