Nokia sees strong Lumia sales in U.S

Nokia, the once mighty Finnish mobile handset maker, is betting its future on the success of its new Windows Phone smartphones, but sales so far around the world have been mixed.

Nokia has announced four new Lumia smartphones in the market since October. Stephen Elop, Nokia's CEO, noted that the devices, which have been released ahead of schedule, have received high acclaim from reviewers and consumers, but sales have been mixed throughout different regions of the world.

For example, initial sales of the company's Lumia 710 at T-Mobile and the newly launched Lumia 900 on AT&T have been strong. The company said that more than 2 million Lumia 900 devices sold in the first few days and was a best seller on Amazon.com. But the company has had trouble in markets such as the U.K., where it initially launched the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710.

"We have launched four Lumia devices ahead of schedule to encouraging awards and popular acclaim," he said in a statement. "The actual sales results have been mixed. We exceeded expectations in markets including the United States, but establishing momentum in certain markets including the UK has been more challenging."

Nokia laid a big bet last year when it decided to abandon the Symbian operating system for Microsoft's Windows Phone platform. The company has worked quickly to introduce new products into the market using the new platform. It's first two products were announced in October with two more following early in 2012. The company now has a portfolio that spans the high-end to the low-end. While Elop said he is confident the company can make a successful transition to the Windows Phone platform, he also admitted the company is facing challenges at the lower end. And it's these challenges for which he blamed the company's earnings shortfall.

"We are navigating through a significant company transition in an industry environment that continues to evolve and shift quickly," he said in a statement. "Over the last year we have made progress on our new strategy, but we have faced greater than expected competitive challenges."

In the first quarter of 2012, Nokia reported an operating loss of $1.76 billion. Nokia warned last week that its earnings would fall short of expectations due to weaknesses in emerging markets. Nokia said that "competitive industry dynamics" in developing markets such as India, China, Africa and the Middle East led to a shortfall.

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