Nokia is, at least, predictably unpredictable. Each of its past four earnings updates have sparked a 10 per cent or so rise or fall in its share price. Yesterday was no different: just minutes after its first-quarter release, Nokia had lost about a seventh of its market value.
This volatility is a testament to
the market's inability to predict Nokia's wildly fluctuating margins. Management struggles too. Just four months into the year, the company has reduced its operating margin forecast by a percentage point, in tacit recognition that it is failing to compete in the high-end smartphone market. Nokia's operating system is just not as good as Apple's or Google's, making its high-end phones hard to shift without slashing prices.