Nokia reports loss as mobile phone sales drop

Mobile phone giant Nokia has reported a loss for the final three months of last year, as sales of mobile devices fell sharply.

The firm made an operating loss of 954m euros ($1.26bn: £800m). Net sales fell 21% on a year earlier to 10bn euros. Net sales of mobile phones were down by a quarter. In October, Nokia launched its first two Windows-based smartphones which it hopes will help it gain ground on Apple and Android-based competitors. According to BBC the former market-leader in mobile phones has lost out to the iPhone and other smartphones that use Google's Android operating system. To try to catch up, it decided to dump its legacy Symbian software in favour of Microsoft for its new range of smartphones. The company said 2012 would continue to be a "year of transition" so it would not be giving any sales or profits forecasts. It estimated there are currently 675 million active owners of S40 phones in the world, and said it is currently selling about 12 phones of the S40 family every second. (BBC)