Nokia (NOK) delivered a mixed message at Tuesday’s investor day. The big Finnish handset maker said it expects worldwide mobile-device industry sales to continue their sustained rise, jumping 10% next year to 1.2 billion units. Nokia also expects to boost its operating profit margin by a point or two over coming years, to around 16%-17%, as the company trims overhead and keeps a lid on research and development spending. Nokia says it will expand its share of the global handset market, currently around 40%, and set a deal with Universal Music for music downloads over Nokia phones.
Read those comments and you’d assume Nokia shares would stay on the winning streak that has taken them up 71% this year. But for all of Nokia’s gains, investors are focusing on one other forecast from today’s event: Nokia sees the average price of cellphones falling. That trend figures to hurt both Nokia and rival Motorola (MOT), which last week replaced CEO Ed Zander in hopes of getting a handle on the cellphone business. Shares in Nokia and Motorola both fell early Tuesday, signaling that even Nokia is fallible — and that incoming Motorola chief Greg Brown shouldn’t expect much of a honeymoon.
(source : money.cnn.com)
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