Nokia posts $1 billion operating loss, ships 4M Lumias in Q2

Like a broken record, Nokia posted weak earnings for the second quarter this morning, reporting a $1 billion operating loss on net sales of $9.21 billion. That falls in line with what Nokia warned, and it’s slightly better than the company’s $1.6 billion loss in Q1.

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Despite the whopping loss, Nokia managed to double its Lumia shipments over the previous quarter to 4 million units. The Q2 numbers brings Nokia’s total Lumia shipments to around 7 million; it kicked off with 1 million shipments in the last quarter of 2011. While its Lumia shipments aren’t stellar, their steady growth shows that Nokia’s plan is at least paying off somewhat.

Overall, Nokia shipped 10.2 million smartphones in Q2 (a 14 percent drop from last year), and 73 million feature phones. The company stumbled in North America, though, reporting just 600,000 phone shipments compared to 1.5 million last year.

More than ever, Nokia’s future lies in the success of its Microsoft partnership. The company recently dropped the price of its flagship Lumia 900 to $50, but we don’t have much faith in sales picking up. Microsoft recently announced that existing Windows Phones won’t get upgraded to Windows Phone 8, due to massive changes in the core OS. (The Lumia phones will at least get a slightly upgraded version of Windows Phone, version 7.8, which has many of the new OS’s interface changes.)

In a statement this morning, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said:

“While Q2 was a difficult quarter, Nokia employees are demonstrating their determination to strengthen our competitiveness, improve our operating model and carefully manage our financial resources. We are executing with urgency on our restructuring program. We are disposing of non-core assets like Vertu. We are taking the necessary steps to restructure the operations of the company.”

Looking towards Q3, Nokia is expecting similar financials. That’s not stopping investors from seeing a glimmer of hope, though — the company’s stock jumped up 15 percent this morning after the earnings were announced.

Photo: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat