Nokia (NOK -0.27%) isn't enjoying the smartphone surge nearly as much as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android partners. Sales of its Lumia handset, based on Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Phone operating system, fell 28% from 4 million units in Q2 to just 2.9 million in the third quarter, the company announced today in its interim Q3 report.
Nokia lost 0.07 euros per share on an adjusted basis, a reversal from last year's 0.03 gain. Revenue fell 19% to 7.239 billion euros. In U.S. dollars, the figures amounted to a $0.09 loss on $9.48 billion in sales. Analysts had been calling for a $0.13-per-share loss on $9.03 billion in revenue, according to Yahoo! Finance data .
And yet the beat didn't matter. Shares of Nokia fell as much as 6% in early trading on what appeared to be discouragement over Lumia sales. In an interview with The New York Times, Pete Cunningham, an analyst with UK research firm Canalys, said he has begun to "doubt the Nokia comeback story."
For his part, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop told the Times that he believes users are yearning for an alternative to the iPhone and Android handsets. Nokia plans to fill the need next year, when it ships Lumia phones based on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.
Separately, in the earnings press release , Elop said he and his team were still "transitioning Nokia." Elop joined the company from Microsoft two years ago. Shares of Nokia are down roughly 70% since.
