Nokia Warns of Sales Slip

Blaming low demand, cell phone giant Nokia Corp. on Tuesday warned that second quarter 2002 sales will be worse than expected, but maintained that earnings will stay in line with previous estimates.

Sales of Nokia phones in the second quarter are expected to grow zero percent to 4 percent year on year instead of the previously expected 5 percent to 10 percent.

Nokia Networks back-end equipment sales are expected to decrease by 20 percent to 25 percent, compared with earlier guidance of a decrease of 5 percent to 10 percent, due to cautious carrier customers, said officials at the Espoo, Finland, company.

In mobile phones, Nokia expects its market share for the second quarter to increase (both sequentially and year on year) to the level of 38 percent during the quarter, with the companys year-on-year volume growth exceeding 10 percent. The company estimates overall mobile phone market volume to grow in the second quarter by about 5 percent, compared with 89 million in the first quarter.

The company expects second-quarter net sales to decline by about 2 percent to 6 percent from the previous year, compared with earlier guidance of 2 percent to 7 percent.

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