Nokia Corp. said Wednesday it expects the global mobile phone market to grow by 10 percent in 2010, suggesting the industry is recovering from a global recession that has also hit handset sales.
However, the world’s largest cell phone maker cautioned that its own market share volume, currently at some 38 percent, would be “flat” next year, but added that it expects the value of its market share to be up “slightly.”
Nokia said it is targeting revenue of euro2 billion ($3 billion) in 2010, with operating margins of 12-14 percent.
Shares in the Finnish company were down slightly at euro8.86 ($13.36) in afternoon trading in Helsinki.
Nokia is increasingly turning to providing services for users, such as music and video downloads, navigational maps and games, and said that by the end of 2011 it will have some 300 million “active users of its services.”
Nokia, which in October reported its first quarterly loss since it became the world’s biggest handset maker in 1998, said it would focus on smart phones, based on “user experience improvements,” to help it boost performance.
CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said progress in the company’s Symbian interface operating system would help it “capture new growth” and make smart phones more affordable for emerging markets.
“As an operating system, Symbian has reach and flexibility like no other platform, and we have measures in place to push smart phones down to new price points globally,” Kallasvuo told investors. “I see great opportunity for Nokia to capture new growth in our industry by creating what we expect to be the world’s biggest platform for services on the mobile.”
Nokia said that it aims to halt the decline in the average selling price of its handsets, that has been steadily falling since 2004 and hit euro62 ($93) in the last quarter — down from more than euro100 five…