Nokia’s Asha series has showed a sudden spike in sales, as per the pre-reports of the fourth quarter. This is great news for the Finnish tech giants that it facing major domination by Android phones. Everyone pegged its fourth quarter performance to the Lumia, which is its most popular phone, but the Asha has outshone Lumia in sales. According to the numbers, 4.4 million Lumia phones were shipped in the last three months of 2012, while Asha’s units were about 9.3 million. The fourth quarter is generally the best-selling time for technology, owing to the holiday shopping spirit, but a leap so stark is rare. Asha’s shipping volumes were 50% higher than those of the third quarter.
Alongside, Research in Motion’s Blackberry and Google’s Android, Nokia is a significant player in emerging markets. In fact, as more and more people have turned towards iPhones and Galaxy’s in the developed countries, companies like Nokia have focused on places like India, Indonesia, China, Latin America and Africa. The durability and consistency of Symbian phones is favored in these markets. In fact, the name “Asha” is no big coincidence of nomenclature – it means hope in Hindi, the language most widely spoken in India. It is ironic though how this phone has potentially become the hope for Nokia’s own future.
While the company had been focused on promoting its premium phone, Lumia, Asha was sneaking up quietly in the background. But market analysts have warned against overestimating the value of these reports. Tavis McCourt, an analyst at Raymond James, was quoted saying that it isn’t unusual for Nokia to sharply increase shipments in the fourth quarter, and these have often fallen again in the following first quarter. Therefore it may be premature to make predictions before the results from this quarter.
Other positive news in the pre-reports from Nokia include a total sales of 86.3 million devices and a heartening performance from the Devices and Services Division overall. Final results will be posted on January 24th, and rumors of a small profit have been floating around. This is the much-needed change for the one-time global leader in mobile phones, as it has been reporting losses for the last three quarters. The latest loss figure is estimated at about $63 million. Asha’s progress, strongly supported by Lumia’s success, could mean a brighter 2013 for the one-time global leader in mobile phones.
