Nokia has released its Q1 2013 results, reporting an operating loss of €150 million (up from a loss of €1338 million in Q1 2012), with net sales of €5.852 billion (down 20% year-on-year). Nokia's Devices and Services division's operating profit was -€42 million. The margin in Devices and Services was -1.5% (up from from -5.1% in Q1 2012). Total smartphone device sales were 6.1 million (5.6 million Lumia, 0.5 million Symbian), but mobile phone volumes fell to 55.8 million, down 21% year-on-year.
Thanks to our readers the AAWP has won Nokia Conversation's App March Madness competition, earning eternal glory and a snazzy gold medal graphic. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who voted for the app through the various rounds of the competition.
Today Kantar released its latest set of Worldpanel data about smartphone market share in a number of countries. The year-on-year figures show strong growth for Windows Phone with increased smartphone market share in all reported markets. In the context of the overall smartphone market Windows Phone conitinues to be a relatively small player, but the latest figures should cheer Microsoft and its hardware partners.
Pandora, a personalised radio service that plays music and comedy, is now available for Windows Phone. As an exclusive promotion Pandora, when used on Windows Phone, will be ad-free and have no monthly streaming limits. Pandora usually charges a $3.99 per month subscription (or $36 a year) for ad-free listening and limits free mobile listening to 40 hours per month, but there will no charge or limits for Windows Phone users throughout 2013.
Back in late January Microsoft started rolling out the Windows Phone 7.8 update for existing Windows Phone 7.5 devices, bringing the Windows Phone 8 Start screen experience to older devices. However, the roll out of the update was paused after an issue with Live Tile updates emerged for some use cases. The issue has now been resolved and Microsoft has updated the update, allowing the roll out of the Windows Phone 7.8 to resume.
Nokia Glam Me, an app which lets you enhances self-portrait pictures taken with the front facing camera of Lumia devices, is now available for download from the Windows Phone Store. The app, which was announced last week at MWC, will automatically enhance any photo it captures, but you can also apply manual adjustments, and apply creative filters.
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Stephen Elop, Nokia's President and CEO, announced the Nokia Lumia 520, a low cost smartphone running Windows Phone 8. The new entry level to the Lumia line up has a 4.0 inch WVGA (800 x 480) TFT screen, 8GB of internal memory, microSD card support, a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor running at 1GHz, and a 5 megapixel camera.
The Nokia Lumia 720, which was announced by Nokia today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, takes a position in the very middle of the Windows Phone 8 Lumia line up, and is aimed at a 'young and design-savvy crowd with busy social lives'. There's special focus on imaging with a good main camera (6mp, f/1.9 aperture), a wide angle front facing camera, and lens apps, as Nokia seek to take "high end innovations to a new audiences". (Updated with original photos)
At Mobile World Congress 2013 Nokia is expected to make a number of device and service announcements at their press conference, which is taking place on Monday 25th February at 08:30 CET (07:30 GMT). We'll be updating this story with our on-the-scene live coverage at the event takes place. You can also watch a live stream of the press conference event here.
The first software update to Windows Phone 8, code named Portico, has now entered the third phase of its roll out. By the end of the month most Windows Phone 8 devices will have received a notification to apply the update. The update includes additional messaging functionality, the ability to send text replies in response to incoming calls, an option to switch off image loading in Internet Explorer, improvements to WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, and a number of performance improvements and bug fixes.
