Nokia Upbeat Despite Plunging Sales

Nokia reported April 16 its worst quarterly performance in more than a decade. Slammed by plunging sales as consumers continue to cut spending, the world's largest cell phone maker saw a 90 percent drop in first-quarter net profits as unit sales declined 18 percent from the fourth quarter.

"The lower sales volumes for Nokia and the industry, both year on year and sequentially, were primarily driven by the negative impact of the rapidly deteriorating global economic conditions, including weaker consumer and corporate spending, severely constrained credit availability and unprecedented currency market volatility," Nokia said in a press release.

While not predicting that the cell phone market has hit the bottom of the slump, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said ongoing sales should be more predictable for the rest of the year.

"The inventory already in the sales channels decreased substantially during Q1 due to extensive destocking by operators and distributors," Kallasvuo said in a statement. "This adversely impacted our sales volumes in the quarter. However, it has also resulted in the demand picture becoming more predictable as we enter the second quarter."

Nokia said it anticipates second-quarter sales volume to be flat or slightly up from the first-quarter results. Overall, Nokia stuck with its prediction that sales will be off 10 percent for 2009.