Struggling Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has posted fourth quarter losses of around EUR 1 billion. Sales were down 21 percent on the previous year. The results from the last quarter of 2011 mark the third consecutive big quarterly loss for the formerly dominant brand.

In spite of the staggering losses, Nokia Chiefs describe the results as solid. The company was slow to react to competition from smartphones and has paid the price. Last year, Nokia released smartphones with a Microsoft Windows operating system after dumping their legacy Symbian software in an effort to combat Apple and competition from smartphones using Google's Android operating system. Sales of the new Nokia Lumia smartphones were much better than expected, already prompting a 7.2 percent increase on Nokia's shares.

The phone manufacturer recently closed down its factory in Romania and relocated production to Vietnam.  The company opened its factory in Romania in 2008, after relocating production from its production plant in Bochum, Germany.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com 

(photo source: Nokia)