Nokia, the world’s largest cell phone-maker, reported lower profits and sales for the third quarter but said the market will stabilize before the end of the year.
Nokia’s profit skidded 79 percent, to $168 million, or about 4 cents per share, from $803 million, or about 20 cents per share, a year ago.
But excluding one-time charges, its earnings were down only 18 percent to $685 million, from $835 million.
That was at the high end of the company’s forecasts of 12 cents to 14 cents per share.
Net sales fell 7 percent to $6.34 billion from $6.81 billion a year earlier. In September, Nokia warned that it expected a sales decline of some 5 percent.
Chief Executive Jorma Ollila expects market conditions to stabilize and the company expects to reach a 40 percent share of mobile phone sales worldwide. In a teleconference with analysts, he said Nokia would be helped by the recent launch of several new models as well as the market stabilization.
