Nokia issues Q2 warning as top end sales hit once more

Handset market leader Nokia has downgraded its forecast fo the second quarter of this year, blaming its ongoing struggles in the high-end smartphone market, where for some time it has been losing share to Apple, RIM and Android-based devices. The resulting shift in the firm’s product mix towards lower margin products has compounded the problem, with the recent weakness of the Euro also impacting on Nokia’s performance, the firm said.

In a statement released Wednesday, Nokia said that it now expects  net sales to be “at the lower end of, or slightly below, its previously expected range of €6.7bn to €7.2bn for the second quarter 2010.” The firm made a similar prediction for its operating margin, which it had previously forecast at nine to twelve per cent.

The outlook for the market as a whole is not so gloomy, though. Nokia stuck by its forecast that that device volumes across the market should grow by ten per cent for 2010 on 2009 numbers. Nokia had previously forecast a slight rise in its own share of the market year on year but has revised that downwards, and now expects to see a drop in its share.

At the end of April Nokia introduced the N8 in the latest bid to re-establish itself at the crucial top end of the market. The first handset to use Symbian 3, the first open version of the Symbian OS, the N8 sports a 12-megapixel camera and the ability to create and edit HD videos.