NOKIA LOWERS PROFIT ESTIMATE IN FIRST QUARTER

Nokia lowered its firstquarter profit forecast on Wednesday as demand for its Symbianbased smartphones, which the company is phasing out, weakened sharply amid the transition to phones using Microsoft’s Windows Phone software.

Nokia, the world’s largest maker of cellphones by volume, said its operating margin in the first quarter for devices and services, which make up 60 per cent of sales, would be a 3 percent loss. Previously, it forecast a margin of “around break- even, ranging either above or below by approximately two percentage points.”

Shares of Nokia fell 15.7 percent, to $ 4.24, on Wednesday.

Pete Cunningham, an analyst at Canalys, a research firm in Reading, England, said Nokia was witnessing eroding demand for its Symbian handsets, a drop that accelerated in the five months after Nokia introduced its first Lumia phones with Microsoft software in October.

“The appetite for Symbian has evaporated quickly,” Mr Cunningham said. “They haven’t been able to ramp up the Windows Phone lineup to offset the balance.”

Nokia’s president and chief executive, Stephen Elop, attributed the profit revision to the company’s transition to Microsoft software, saying Nokia would accelerate cost- cutting measures and explore unspecified “structural changes” if necessary.

The company began selling two Lumia models in November and unveiled two more this year.

In the United States, Nokia’s Lumia phones are available on the AT& T and T- Mobile networks. Nokia has not disclosed specific sales numbers for Lumia handsets in America, but Mr. Elop has said that the Lumia 710 smartphone on T- Mobile has “exceeded expectations.” Nokia’s Lumia 900 on AT& T’s network was released Sunday and quickly became a topselling handset on Amazon. com — a sign of a strong opening week, said Tero Kuittinen, an analyst and vice president at Alekstra, a company that helps customers manage their cellphone bills.

“I have to say I’m pretty impressed by how it’s doing on Amazon. com,” he said. By arrangement with the New York Times