Nokia posts an operating loss of $754 million in Q3, sales of Lumia smartphones drop to 2.9 million units

As expected Nokia has posted an operating loss in its Q3 earnings report. The company reported that it incurred a loss of $754 million in Q3 and sales of its Lumia smartphones dropped to 2.9 million units from 4 million in Q2. On the brighter side of things,
Nokia’s Mobile phone business did pretty well as it sold 76.6 million units piggybacking on the new full-touch Asha phones that sold 6.5 million units on their own.
While the outlook for Nokia is clearly gloomy, there is a sliver lining for the company as its losses are coming down steadily. In Q4 of 2011 it reported a loss of $1.3 billion, in Q1 of 2012 the losses went up to $1.7 billion, Q2 of 2012 brought the losses down to $1.01 billion and for the first time in the last four quarters the losses are under a billion at $754 million. Of course this is also partially due to Nokia divesting many non-core businesses and properties like Vertu.
Additionally, the drop in Lumia sales was also anticipated once Microsoft announced that the current line of Lumia devices would not get the Windows Phone 8 update.
Nokia expects Q4 to be another difficult quarter, but one should keep in mind that in Q4 the company will launch its Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 smartphones that are expected to help the company back in shape.