One of the worst signs for WP8 is that Nokia's N9 — despite being crippled without marketing, and often selling at full price compared to the almost fully subsidized Lumia phones — is selling better than Nokia's Windows phones, with 1.5M or more phones reaching end users. Interestingly, if the Nokia N9 had been available in all markets, it might have sold almost 5M units and pushed Nokia into profitability.

Originally Posted by panjgoori

WP dont even have a chance to outperform MeeGo.

Originally Posted by _David_

... the story might get picked up by mainstream journalists

Originally Posted by Kangal

..

They need to pack that polycarbonate with their best quality cameras, largest possible battery, 4G LTE, the fastest available SoC (for WP) and supplement their own User eXperince (a la Swipe UI).
..

Stephen Elop

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us today for the Q4 2011 earnings call. The fourth quarter of 2011 marked a significant step in Nokia's transformation. As I have shared in my previous remarks, a transaction of the magnitude on which we have embarked is significant.

And while we progressed in the right direction in 2011, we still have a tremendous amount to accomplish in 2012 in order to properly position Nokia for sustainable long-term growth. We are now in the heart of our transaction. Most notably, in Q4 we introduced new mobile phones and smartphones, further evidence of the strategy shift in our Devices & Services business.

Overall, we are pleased with the performance of our mobile phones business, which benefited in Q4 from sequential double-digit percentage growth in our dual SIM business, with particular strength in India, Middle East and Africa, and Southeast Asia. In October, we introduced the Asha 200, 201, 300 and 303, which brought new mobile phones into 76 markets around the world. We are very pleased with the net promoter scores for Asha and consumers are responding positively to Asha’s great data capabilities, elegant design and value for money.

The operator channel also is responding positively to Asha, as the devices are bridging the gap between smartphones and feature phones. Because consumers are using their Asha devices for data and Internet, these devices are garnering a higher level of subsidy support from operators compared to traditional feature phones. Additionally, we have reached an important milestone in our mobile phones business. Quite recently, we sold our 1.5 billionth Series 40 device. Furthermore, we are building on this foundation with R&D investments as we continue our journey to bring the Internet to the next billion.

Shifting now to our Smart Devices business. In October, just six months after signing an agreement with Microsoft, we introduced our first two devices based on the Windows Phone platform, the Lumia 800 and the 710. We brought the Lumia 800 and 710 to market ahead of schedule, demonstrating that we are changing the clock speed of Nokia. To date, we have introduced Lumia to consumers in a number of European countries. We have also expanded the Lumia reach to Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.

We have also started our important re-entry into the North American market. Earlier this month, T-Mobile started selling the Lumia 710, and they are targeting the 150 million Americans still to make the transaction to smartphones. The Lumia 800 will also arrive in Microsoft retail and online stores in February. And starting in February, we expect to launch the Lumia 710 with Rogers and the 800 with TELUS to bring the Lumia experience to Canada.

And of course, we announced the new Lumia 900 for the US market in an exclusive partnership with AT&T. It is our third Lumia device and our first LTE device. Designed for the North American market, we expect the Lumia 900 to be available in the months ahead. The early reviews of the Lumia 900 have garnered an exceptionally positive pre-sales reception.

We introduced the Lumia 900 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where the new device was recognized with 13 awards from leading publications and technology associations. The awards range from Best of Show to CES Product of the Future to Top Gadget of CES 2012. While there are many challenges ahead, launching into the United States with the most recognized product at CES is a good starting point. And we won’t stop there. We plan to bring the Lumia series to additional markets, including China and Latin America, this half.

In the war of ecosystems, clearly there are some strong contenders already on the field. With Lumia, our specific intent has been to establish a beachhead in this war of ecosystems, and country-by-country that is precisely what we are now accomplishing. To date, we have sold well over 1 million Lumia devices.

Since mid-November, we went from zero markets to 15 markets, from zero devices to well over 1 million devices, from no presence in the US to being a lead in AT&T’s LTE launch. I’m pleased that we are moving from a standing start to gaining speed. From this beachhead, you will see us push forward with the sales, marketing and successive product introductions necessary to be successful.

Our performance with Lumia on a country-by-country basis varies, often as a combination of relative brand strength and retail execution capabilities. For example, in the United Kingdom, where competitive ecosystems are firmly entrenched, we have seen mixed retail execution around Lumia devices with a range of results among different locations, different chains, different stores and so on.

Contrarily, in German and Spain, we have seen steady weak-on-weak improvement in Lumia device activations up to the holiday season followed by a small expected dip during the last week of the year and then continued weak-on-weak growth in January. We are in the very early days in the United States with T-Mobile, and we are very encouraged with the early pickup that we have seen retail outlets.

The quality and ease of use of a Nokia device combined with a $50 price point is showing early signs of success as promotional activity begins. As we establish these early beachheads, developer interest is increasing. The number of applications that developers submit to the Windows Phone marketplace is at roughly three times the rate of submissions prior to our partnership announcement with Microsoft.

As a result, there are more than 14,000 developers and 55,000 new applications in the Windows Phone marketplace. As well, the Metro user interface that is on the Lumia device is expected to come soon to Microsoft PCs and tablets and increasingly to X-Box. Developers are therefore encouraged by the broadening opportunity.

But as I stated in my opening remarks, we are in the heart of our transition, which means as we bring the first of our new devices to market, there are areas where we are learning and areas where we must adjust. First, we are learning more about the variations in our store-by-store retail execution related to Lumia. Our consumer research indicates and the response that CES validates that when consumers use a Lumia device, the response is positive.

While we have secured strong support from the operators, we need to increase the engagement of the retail sales associates in the stores, because it is the retail associate who speaks with our consumers and puts the Lumia device in their hands. As a result, we are adjusting – we’re adjusting our retail tactics by increasing the quantity and quality of our retail associate training programs, seeding more Lumia devices into the market and increasing point of sales activities.

Second, through our continued focus on consumer net promoter scores, we are also learning about the areas where consumers are most favorable towards the specific capabilities of Lumia and those areas upon which we need to focus. For example, we receive very positive feedback on the elegance of design, ease of use, and absolute performance of the products.

On the other hand, consumers initially reported that battery performance needed focus. Thus we immediately adjusted to improve battery performance with software updates, which are now in market. This rapid cycle of consumer learning and Nokia response is a critical part of our improved approach to product management.

Third, we are learning that awareness of Lumia is steadily growing, assisted by each of the success of product and country launches that continue. As awareness grows, we are adjusting the focus of our marketing efforts from the aspirational aspects of a new launch towards an emphasis on the differentiated experiences and capabilities of the Lumia products.

And fourth, we are learning about the importance of truly breaking through. Thus we are adjusting our plans to increase the rate at which we enter new markets in the course of 2012. We also are increasing the focus of our corporate resources on continued marketing campaigns, and we are working to accelerate the introduction of a full breadth of products.

Overall, we are pursuing this pattern. We’ll take each step up the ladder one rung at a time, recognizing that the competitive dynamics vary country-by-country. This underscores the large amount of work immediately ahead of us to break through as the third ecosystem to capture the attention of retail sales associates, to convert the increasing awareness around Lumia into purchase intent and ultimately to delight our consumers.

Shifting now to Symbian. Early users of Symbian Belle have responded well to the advances that we have introduced to the Symbian user experience. Our plan is to continue to support the Symbian sales efforts, deliver ongoing improvements to the software experience, offer new products and continue to support Symbian through 2016.

As we have discussed, there are changing market conditions, which are putting increased pressure on Symbian. For example, Chinese operators are increasingly focused on driving the growth of 3G data subscribers. As a result, there has been an accelerating trend towards bundling retail rate plans. This in turn is driving larger volumes of lower price smartphones in configurations that are different from Symbian’s traditional strengths. As a result of the changing market conditions, combined with the increased focus on Lumia, we now believe that we will sell fewer Symbian devices than we previously anticipated.

During Q4, we also formed the Location & Commerce business to drive value from our leading mapping and location-based services platform. We conducted annual impairment testing in Q4 in the context of our new structure and plans for the future, and valued the Location & Commerce business at EUR4.1 billion, resulting in an impairment of EUR1.1 billion.

The Location & Commerce business is an important asset that is bringing differentiating location-based services to Nokia, and that serves as an important element of Microsoft services strategy. We believe this is the leading location-based services platform with an opportunity to become tremendously powerful, as computing goes more mobile and location increasingly becomes a critical organizing dimension for a person's experiences.

Through all of these changes, the passion, commitment and focus of Nokia’s employees serve us well. They are helping us accelerate the pace at which we operate at Nokia. In 2011, we made good progress in focusing our R&D teams adjusting our manufacturing capacity, renewing our manufacturing strategy, consolidating our location assets, and aligning our markets team and other supporting functions.

We have taken Nokia on an incredible journey in 2011. In 12 months, we have assessed and faced the realities of our business situation. We established a new strategy for long-term growth. We delivered the first devices in support of that new strategy ahead of schedule. And we are establishing beachheads around the globe from which we aim to win country-to-country, product-by-product, consumer-by-consumer.

In summary, with a strong balance sheet, our performance in mobile phones and the new excitement around Lumia, we are confident that we can build long-term value.