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Nokia sold 7.4 million Lumia phones in the second quarter, a 32 percent increase over the first quarter, the company said Thursday.
Despite the jump in Lumia smartphone sales, the total number of Nokia phones sold declined, leading to an overall loss of 115 million euros ($150 million) and the possible axing of 440 jobs.
The sales of Lumia Windows Phones helped Nokia’s device and service division bring in 2.7 billion euros in the second quarter. That’s a drop of 24 percent compared with this time last year, as feature phone sales continued to decline.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop highlighted the Asha 501 budget phone as contributing toward “signs of recovery” in phone sales, but acknowledged that the Finnish company is “planning to take actions to focus its product offering and improve product competitiveness.” That includes cutting up to 440 jobs in the global mobile phones division, although some staff may be redeployed.
Discussing sales of Lumia phones, which reached a quarterly high, Elop also highlighted the wallet-friendly Lumia 520 as having had a “strong start” in various markets around the world, including the U.S., U.K., and China.
Between January and June of this year, Nokia Group’s total sales brought in 11.5 billion euros, a fall of 22 percent since last year. It’s another round of disappointment for what was once the biggest phone manufacturer in the world: Nokia posted both a loss and a decline in overall revenue in the first three months of the year.
This time last year the Finnish company posted a $1.7 billion loss, though Lumia sales jumped.
Last week, Elop unveiled the Lumia 1020, a 41-megapixel powerhouse of a camera phone that goes on sale on July 26.
Correction at 6 a.m. PT: The currency conversion for 115 million euros to dollars has been fixed.
