HMD Global revived the Nokia smartphone brand over three years ago and experienced instant success. Sales climbed from only 100,000 units in Q1 2017 to over 4.4 million in Q4 2017 and then remained pretty stable throughout 2018.
Last year was much tougher for the Finnish company – sales dropped in every quarter except Q2 2019 – and new data suggests 2020 could be even worse.
Nokia smartphone sales are in freefall
Market data gathered by Counterpoint Research (via NokiaMob) suggests HMD Global shipped only 1.7 million smartphones during the first quarter of 2020. That number is down 45.2% year-on-year, more than triple the average market decline during the same period.
To make matters worse, Q1 2020 is the third consecutive quarter in which Nokia smartphone sales have dropped by at least 1 million units. It also represents the worst quarter since Q2 2017, when 1.4 million units were shipped.
HMD Global was number 13 on the list of largest global smartphone manufacturers last quarter, according to Counterpoint Research. That is especially disappointing considering the brand was number 9 less than a couple of years ago.
The current quarter might be even worse
These results will have undoubtedly been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic that started to hit Europe in March, but such a large drop suggests the poor reception of recent smartphone launches is also to blame.
The company is now betting heavily on the Nokia 8.3 5G to revive sales, but that won’t be hitting shelves until summer. And with demand still low in Europe, the current quarter could end up being a catastrophic one for Nokia smartphones.
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