Nokia placed a big bet on Windows Phone when it axed Symbian and agreed to develop smartphones that would only run on Microsoft’s mobile platform. It was able to make the arrangement work, closing out with over 92 percent of the entire global Windows Phone market. Its Lumia lineup has been very successful, particularly in emerging markets where the Lumia 520 has singlehandedly lead the Windows Phone charge. The once iconic manufacturer agreed last year to sell its device business to Microsoft, making 2013 the last year in which Nokia would function as a full-fledged handset manufacturer. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been able to go out on top, Nokia has reported its Q4 2013 fiscal earnings, posting a $270 million loss and conceding that smartphone and feature phone sales dipped in the last quarter.
While Nokia has not revealed just how many Asha phones it was able to sell, the Asha lineup is quite popular in emerging markets, it has stated on record that 8.2 million Lumia smartphones were sold in Q4 2013, down 600,000 units that were sold in the quarter before that last year. The company blames the fall in sales to increased competition particularly from cheap Android devices. The barrage of new smartphones, including the Lumia 1520 flagship it unveiled back in October, didn’t quite bring a surge in the overall sales. Though it should be kept in mind that those smartphones came to the market when the better part of last quarter had already gone by. Microsoft expects to close its acquisition of Nokia’s hardware business within this quarter, after which it will itself become the largest Windows Phone OEM.
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