Nokia Lowers Forecasts Amid IPhone Competition in Smartphones Tweet

Nokia Oyj, the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, cut its second-quarter and full-year forecasts, citing a lack of high-end devices and a weaker euro.

Second-quarter handset revenue and margins will be “at the lower end of or slightly below” the range forecast, the Espoo, Finland-based company said in a statement today.

Nokia has struggled to come out with a touchscreen model that meets user expectations raised by Apple Inc.’s iPhone. Nokia is losing high-end customers to the iPhone, Research in Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry, and phones running Google Inc.’s Android software, while increasing sales of cheaper smartphones with smaller profits.

Nokia fell as much as 55 cents, or 7 percent, to 7.37 euros, the most in more than a month. It was trading down 6.6 percent at 7.40 euros as of 3:07 p.m. in Helsinki.

Sales in the devices and services division may fall below 6.7 billion euros as the company’s product mix shifted toward less-profitable midrange and low end phones, Nokia said.

The adjusted operating margin in handsets may fall below 9 percent in the second quarter and 11 percent for the year, it said. The company lowered its devices margins forecasts on April 22 to 9 to 12 percent for the quarter and 11 to 13 percent for the year.

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