Nokia posted a bleak outlook for mobile industry growth this year after today reporting sharp falls in operating profit for both fourth-quarter and full-year 2008. Q4 operating profit fell a huge 80 percent year-on-year to €492 million (from €2.5 billion in the year-ago period), whilst full-year 2008 operating profit fell 38 percent to €4.97 billion. Q4 sales fell 19.4 percent year-on-year to €12.7 billion, whilst full-year 2008 sales fell slightly (0.7 percent) to €50.7 billion. The large declines in Q4 operating profit and sales were attributed to the accelerated impact of the global economic downturn at the end of last year. The world’s largest handset vendor saw mobile device shipments in the quarter fall 15 percent year-on-year and the company lost market share, estimating its global share at 37 percent, down from 40 percent in the year-ago period.

Nokia expects the global mobile device market to decline approximately 10 percent this year from 2008 levels but is aiming to increase its market share in 2009. The vendor said it is “taking action to reduce overall costs,” but any job cuts will be in line with previous announcements. CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was also keen to stress that Nokia will continue to invest “at the proper pace in future growth,” with the vendor believing it has “a tremendous opportunity to capture value as the Internet services market evolves and grows.” Meanwhile, the company’s network infrastructure business, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), experienced a 5.3 percent year-on-year fall in Q4 net sales (€4.3 billion) but a 14 percent rise in full-year sales, to €15.3 billion. NSN expects the mobile infrastructure market to decline 5 percent or more in 2009.