And the need for a mobile is a little less

A huge blow from colder Northern struck head-on Friday in the mobile world. The Nokia Finns know that drinking phones sector, it dominates blithely (with 39 market share), was strongly affected by the economic crisis that spreads around the world. An almost unprecedented situation for the industry, which demonstrates that no consumer electronics sector is now saved by the slowdown in consumer spending and business. The day before, U.S. Intel had already sounded the alarm in the computer industry.

"In recent weeks, the global economic slowdown, combined with unprecedented foreign exchange volatility, led a strong decrease in overall consumer spending", said Nokia. The mobile market has also been EBIT impacted by more limited access to credit, thereby reducing the ability to purchase some of our distributors. "The Finns was visibly taken course by the sudden collapse of demand. If it was still relatively confident a month ago, the Finnish now anticipates somewhat poor Christmas sales. All manufacturers combined, sales are expected to decrease by 2 over the same period of last year. Which bring annual growth less than 9, with 1.24 billion passed terminals.

The never-seen since 2001

But forecasts issued by the world number one for 2009 is even more disturbing. Nokia expects a decline of the market in volume year next "EBIT impacted by the persistence of the global economic slowdown. It is the almost-never-seen in a sector rather accustomed to double-digit growth rates. In the history of mobile telephony, such withdrawal has occurred only once: in 2001. "Sales volume were then folded 5 over a year, due to the reduction of the prepaid offers of operators, the collapse of the dot-com bubble, the slowdown of the growth of world GDP and the tragedy of September 11", recalls Neil Mawston, analyst at Strategy Analytics firm. The latter now anticipates sales decreased by 1 in 2009 and is expected to see the first signs of recovery before the middle of the year.

If no region of the planet is spared, Western Europe is particularly punishment. Sales of mobile are fell 13 in the third quarter, according to Strategy Analytics. In mature markets, consumers now look to the expenditure before changing phone. If Nokia recognizes that the situation is better in emerging countries, the impact of the crisis is there felt all the same: "Where there is a sharp depreciation of the currency against the dollar, the purchasing power of consumers is reduced, which leads them to arbitrate in spending", acknowledged Chief Financial Officer Rick Simonson. And the need for a mobile is a little less...

Bad news is never alone, Nokia also expects that the network infrastructure markets fold in 2009. What is wrong bodes for competitors like Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent. With these winds, Finnish has promised to take necessary savings measures and reduce its operating expenditure. Nokia has already announced earlier this month the deletion of 600 positions, while its subsidiary networks, Nokia Siemens Networks has provided 1.820. A sign that the Finns was surprised by the rapid deterioration of the market, he returned to December 4, the announcement of new savings measures.