Nokia earnings in third quarter beat forecasts

Nokia posted a third quarter earnings per share of €0.20 to beat a consensus market forecast of €0.18.

Nokia posted a third quarter earnings per share of €0.20 to beat a consensus market forecast of €0.18.

Nokia's pretax profit rose to €1.218 billion in the quarter from €1.041 billion a year earlier. This was slightly better than the consensus forecast of €1.170 billion.

But the company predicted a fall in the average selling price of mobile handsets this year.

Nokia expects the overall mobile device market this year to grow in volume terms, but it expects the average selling price, or ASP, to be lower.

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The Finnish mobile phone giant reported net sales of €8.403 billion against €7.104 billion a year ago and just below the market forecast of €8.450 billion.

The group also raised its estimates for global handset sales in 2005 to about 780 million units from its earlier estimate of 760 million units, compared with 643 million units in 2004.

It also said the market is now being driven by expanding subscriber numbers in developing markets.

In more developed markets, replacement and upgrade sales continue to be driven by the availability of new features, services and cameras.