After their first gain in almost two years last quarter, Nokia has posted an operating loss of $196 million (PDF), on around $7.65 billion in revenue. This comes even as they’ve shown record sales of their Lumia phone line, at 5.6 million.
While Nokia’s overall mobile performance fell 31 percent outside of the Lumia, and their other “Smart Devices” fell 32 percent, the Lumia got a 27 percent boost from last quarter. Serving as Microsoft’s flagship Windows Phone, the Lumia has led to good news overall for the company – even as they lost nearly $200 million in operating funds, they rose up from $5.69 billion to $5.85 billion in cash and liquid assets.
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop hinted today that a new Lumia device would be coming on a U.S. carrier by year’s end. It’s most likely the rumored Lumia “Catwalk.” If the early word on it’s legitimate, we should expect a metal case and a typically aggressive Microsoft ad campaign.
They also took a loss in units shipped to North America – 400,000 devices, down from 700,000 last quarter. More and more carriers are paying attention to Nokia recently, but they’ve gotta figure out how to consistently overhaul their US advertising strategy. When we see the Catwalk in Windows Phone ads, we have to get excited enough to switch, and at this point in the mobile industry’s take-off period, that takes a dynamic and immersive campaign. More importantly, it takes a fundamental understanding of how to convey what’s new about Catwalk, and why we should care.
We’ve all seen Windows Phone ads – colorful, with focus on the OS’ layout. If Nokia wants to keep its North American presence on the rise without taking quarterly losses, it has to take that campaign a step further, building on our familiarity with it, and showing us what’s new about Catwalk aside from its shiny metal shell.
