Nokia suffers heavy loss as sales slip

Nokia has been slower than rivals to take advantage of the lucrative market for smartphones

Mobile phone giant Nokia has plunged into the red as sales fell and margins were squeezed in the second quarter.

The firm made a net loss of 368m euros ($521m; £323m) in the three months to the end of June, compared with a profit of 227m euros a year earlier. Net sales fell by 7% to 9.3bn euros.

It had warned that its second quarter results would be disappointing.

Nokia has lost ground to competitors such as Apple's iPhone and phones using Google's Android operating system.

'Very optimistic'

"The challenges we are facing during our strategic transformation manifested in a greater than expected way in the second quarter," said group chief executive Stephen Elop.

Although he said "competitive pressures" would continue, Mr Elop said the firm had a clear strategy to turn the business around.

He said he was "very optimistic" about the the company's new range of smartphones, which will use Microsoft technology instead of Nokia's legacy Symbian software.

Earlier this year, Nokia announced 7,000 job cuts worldwide as part of strategy to focus on smartphones, 3,000 of which are being transferred to consultancy group Accenture.

Nokia hopes that the job cuts and restructuring will help produce savings of 1bn euros for the firm by 2013.