The Consumer Electronics Association hopes for a 2.1% in cell phone sales in 2009. Wishful thinking?
The world’s largest maker of mobile phones posted today a 69% drop in fourth-quarter profit of $751 million and a 19% revenue decline, still at over $16 billion.
During the last quarter, Nokia shipped 113.1 million handsets, down 15% over last year.
The mobile phone manufacturers are being hit hard in ’09
Competitors are not doing much better either.
Last Friday, rival handset maker Sony Ericsson posted a second-straight quarterly loss at $245 million. And Motorola also said it will report a fourth-quarter loss and slash an additional 4,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, Nokia lowered its outlook for global mobile devices sold in 2009, saying it now expects them to fall 10% compared to an earlier forecast of a 5% drop.
At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month, the CEA hoped for a 2.1% sales growth in mobile phones. That might be just wishful thinking at this point.
