Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) shares have beat shares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by 157 percent since August 2012. Today shares of Apple are down almost .5 percent while shares of Nokia are up 5.5 percent.
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) released a better-than-expected pre-earnings report for its fourth quarter of 2012. One of the key pieces of news in that report was the sale of 4.4 million Lumia handsets. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said the company was pleased that the quarter was solid and that it exceeded expectations.
It was an about-face from just a few short months ago when he said the company was “on a burning platform.” At that point he was focused on rallying the company as he pointed out the fact that the first iPhone came out in 2007, and Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) hasn’t had a smartphone that was anywhere near as successful as that handset.
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK)’s pre-earnings report indicated the sale of almost 16 million smartphone units, including 9.3 million Asha full touch handsets, 4.4 million Lumia handsets, and 2.2 million Symbian handsets. The company’s Lumia portfolio and mobile phones unit both delivered results that were better than expected. Also the Nokia Siemens Networks non-IFRS operating margin is expected to be at least break even, if not positive 2 percent.
Shares of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) have also risen on Nokia’s positive pre-earnings report. Nokia’s Lumia handsets run on the Windows 8 operating system and represent Microsoft’s first attempt to take on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iOS and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Android operating system in the smartphone market.
