Nokia beat first quarter expectations by a wide margin, with net profits up 21 per cent. The company had increased first quarter shipments by 40 per cent year-on-year to 75.1 million handsets, corresponding to a market share of 35 per cent ?? a rise of 3 percentage points. Operating margins were 14.4 per cent of sales, higher than the 13.2 per cent of last year’s fourth quarter but down from the 15.1 per cent in the same quarter of 2004. Strategy Analytics, a US-based consultancy, has said that global mobile shipments totalled 229 million in the first three months of 2006 ?? the first time they had exceeded 200 million in the first quarter of a year. Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson controlled 78 per cent of the market in the first quarter, compared with 68 per cent two years ago.
