Nokia's initial signs of recovery urgently grab the market

Nokia has shown some revitalization again, but to fully recover, it may still need more momentum.

Earlier, Nokia released its fourth-quarter earnings report for 2012. The financial report showed some encouraging signs. After experiencing several quarterly losses, Nokia finally turned profitable in the fourth quarter of last year. Nokia’s Lumia-branded mobile phone seems to have a foothold in the market. In the fourth quarter of last year, Nokia sold 4.40 million Lumia smartphones.

However, Nokia still has a lot of work to do. Despite Nokia’s steady progress in the North American market, although AT&T has already sold Lumia 920 and Verizon is also selling Lumia phones, Nokia’s market share is still relatively small. The smaller data also highlights the difficulties Nokia is facing in trying to occupy more market share.

Given Nokia’s influence in North America, North America has also become one of the few markets where Nokia’s sales have increased. In the fourth quarter of last year, Nokia’s revenue in North America nearly quadrupled to US$196 million, although the specific mobile phone sales only increased from 500,000 in the same period a year ago to 700,000. However, just a year ago, Lumia phones have not been released in the North American market.

Although Nokia’s sales figures in North America showed positive signals, these sales only accounted for a small part compared with other regions. In 2012, Nokia launched the Lumia 900 mobile phone early. Later in the second half of last year, Nokia upgraded the system of this mobile phone. In the fourth quarter of last year, most of Lumia 920's sales were likely to come from AT&T, the carrier's Lumia 920 as its exclusive flagship smartphone. The Lumia 820 sold at Verizon may not have much influence.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop talked about the company's slow and steady progress. Nokia seems to be pursuing this trend. As Elop indicates that Nokia may provide Verizon with a possible flagship smart phone, Nokia's situation may be better this year. Of course, Nokia will also provide AT&T with another, more robust product.

However, in the U.S. market, it is unclear whether the Windows Phone brand can stand. At least earlier this year, major carriers appeared to be preparing to take over devices powered by RIM's BlackBerry 10 operating system. The BlackBerry 10 operating system will be released next week. In addition, Nokia also competes with HTC's Windows Phone 8X. At present, Microsoft has considered Windows Phone 8X as a flagship device for the WP8 system.

In the fourth quarter of last year, Nokia’s Lumia smart hand sales reached 4.4 million units, which is certainly a sign of progress. However, Lumia data appears to be stretched compared with the enormous sales volume of Android smart phones and iPhones in each quarter. For example, Apple’s iPhone smartphone sales reached 47.8 million units in the most recent first quarter.

As a result, despite its profitability in the fourth quarter of last year, Nokia still needs a sense of urgency.