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Technology Stocks : Nokia (NOK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sverre Schriwer who wrote (514)	1/29/1998 7:29:00 AM
From: tero kuittinen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 34857

Ericsson keeps up a torrid pace in the fourth quarter. The mobile infrastructure sales growth is just 23%, though. Nokia should beat this handily as in previous quarters. Nokia keeps gaining market share here. Ericsson's handset sales were up by an eye-popping 87%, though. This defies belief. Nokia is clearly on a slower growth path... at least until the 6100 series introduction starts boosting the company this quarter. Overall, Ericsson clocked above 85% growth in handsets in each and every quarter of the year. This means the company is devouring market share, probably most of it cominbg from Motorola. Nokia better find some traction in the handset sales or the Swedes will overtake it. Big news was the operating margin, as has been case in the previous quarters. It's up from 8,7% to above 11%. Only recently Forbes was spreading doom and gloom about the mobile phones becoming a commodity. I don't think so. These results bode well for Nokia. It's coming off its own considerable boost in profit margin and apparently the trend might continue. Price erosion looks manageable to put it mildly. Asian impact wasn't that bad, at least in this quarter. The huge sales growth in Europe buoyed Ericsson and should do the same for Nokia. Both profit margin figures and sales growth now put the Nordic companies in the class of their own compared to the lumbering Motorola, which started the year by trumpeting a "turnaround" in handset sales. Apparently the concessions made by the Nokia/Ericsson consortium in the ETSI compromise can be characterized as marginal. The engine of the new worldwide mobile standard will be designed by the Nordics. I've seen worse days for Nokia. Tero