Nokia shipped 2.2 million Lumia smartphones in last quarter

Finnish handset maker Nokia shipped 2.2 million Lumia smartphones in the quarter ended in March, according to IDC.


The company is betting high on its Lumia portfolio to regain its lost position of market leader. The company has been vying with smartphone majors such as Apple and Android leader Samsung.


In order to solidify its battle with market incumbents, Nokia introduced multiple variants in its Lumia range. Meanwhile, the company plans to further expand its Lumia range by the end of third quarter of 2012.

So far, IDC said that the shipments of Lumia smartphones are relatively small. Presently, the market for Windows OS based smartphone is too small, which is expected to increase in coming years.


In comparison to the 35 million iPhones that Apple sold to customers in a single quarter, 2.2 million Lumia smartphones shipped seems too frail.


Recently, the company launched its NFC enabled Lumia 610smartphone. The smartphone is the first Microsoft Windows Phone device that INSIDE Secure, INSIDE Secure, a semiconductor solutions provider supported with MicroRead and Open NFC.

Apart from Nokia, Samsung and HTC have also launched their Windows-based smartphones and are suffering from same issues. 


 "It is too early to tell whether the Lumia line would be an abject failure or an outright success, because the handsets have yet to become available on more carriers in more countries. The next two quarters would serve as a better measure of the Lumia line's chances," said Kevin Restivo, an analyst at IDC.



Recently, Nokia reported 26 percent decline in net sales at EUR 7.4 billion (including Nokia devices, Nokia Siemens and location business) for Q1 2012, against EUR 10.4 billion for Q1 2011.


Nokia reported an operating loss of EUR 1.3 billion for Q1 2012, against operating profit of EUR 439 million for Q1 2011.The company has recently strengthened its Asha portfolio with some new addition at competitive prices.

Recently, Ovum predicted that Windows Phone will be the biggest achiever in terms of smartphone shipments in the Asia-pacific enterprise smartphone market.Windows Phone and BlackBerry OS are expected to share top positions in the Asian-Pacific enterprise smartphone market with shipments of 1.14 million each by 2016.