Nokia, the world’s largest handset manufacturer, today reported a third-quarter fall in profits, sales and market-share but said it expects industry device volumes to grow in 2008. The Finnish vendor reported a 30 percent slide in Q3 profit, with net income falling to €1.09 billion (US$1.47 billion), from €1.56 billion (US$2.11 billion) a year earlier. Sales fell 5.1 percent to €12.2 billion (US$16.5 billion). The vendor also confirmed a warning from September that its global device market share fell from the Q2 value of 40 percent to a Q3 value of 38 percent. On a positive note, Nokia said in a statement its Q4 market share will remain constant or grow slightly and the company “expects industry mobile volume will be approximately 1.26 billion in 2008, up from approximately 1.14 billion units estimated for 2007.” Meanwhile, the company’s infrastructure venture, Nokia Siemens Networks, reported a 5 percent fall in year-on-year sales, to €3.5 billion (US$4.7 billion) and forecast a flat mobile infrastructure market for the rest of 2008. Nokia also today said it will make a one-time payment of €1.7 billion (US$2.3 billion) to mobile chipmaker Qualcomm as part its patent agreement with the US firm. The payment will be made during the fourth quarter and expensed quarterly over the term of the 15-year agreement that was first announced in July.

In separate news, Nokia’s high-profile Comes With Music service goes live today in the UK via retailer Carphone Warehouse. The vendor’s 5310 XpressMusic phone is the first handset to be launched with the offering, providing unlimited music from the four major music labels and many independents that can be kept after the yearly contract has expired. A rival to Apple’s iTunes service, the UK is the first market to launch the service and reports this week suggest mobile operator 3 UK will offer the phone with a monthly contract by Christmas.