Nokia reported that the global mobile device market continued to grow during the second quarter 2004 reaching 148 million units and is expected to surpass 600 million units for the full year 2004. Many markets, such as Brazil, India and Russia, are experiencing strong industry growth as mobile communications become affordable to new subscribers. Nokia's overall mobile device volume was 45.4 million for Q2, giving the company an estimated 31% share of the market.
However, while benefiting from positive developments in emerging markets, Nokia's sales for Q2 came under pressure in Europe and to a lesser extent in the U.S. Nokia's overall mobile device net sales in EUR terms grew very strongly in Latin America and China, moderately in the rest of Asia, but declined significantly in the Europe/Africa market and to a lesser extent in North America. Some highlights:
- Overall, net sales of EUR 6.6 billion decreased 5% compared to second quarter 2003. At constant currency, group net sales would have increased 1% year on year.
- Nokia's Mobile Phones business group second-quarter net sales decreased 13% year on year to EUR 4.2 billion. This reflects the above regional developments and impacts from the pricing strategies.
- Nokia's Multimedia business group second-quarter net sales increased 24% year on year to EUR 739 million. The imaging devices continued to sell well while the other product segments did not perform according to our expectations.
- Nokia's Networks business group second-quarter net sales increased 6% year on year to EUR 1.6 billion as a result of continued growth in nearly all markets.
- Enterprise Solutions business group second-quarter net sales declined 2% year on year to EUR 189 million. This was due to increased competition in the security and mobile connectivity side of the business, which offset growth in the mobile device side.
