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Nokia may have shipped over 1 million Lumia handsets in the fourth quarter, and could boost this number to 3.2 million in the first quarter, according to a survey of analysts.

A Bloomberg survey of 22 forecasters had only one analyst predicting Lumia sales of below 1 million, with 1.3 million being a popular estimate for shipment made by the end of 2011. Expectations among the 22 analysts surveyed ranged from sales of 800,000 Lumia phones to 2 million, though the average expectations were above 1 million. Nokia will report its fourth-quarter earnings Thursday.

“The numbers look promising,” Espen Furnes, an Oslo-based fund manager at Storebrand Asset Management, told Bloomberg. “If Nokia is able to have a strong launch and surpass at least one million and keep that type of momentum, this would help put them in a credible position that is crucial to winning back investors.”

However, Nokia’s overall smartphones sales, which still rely heavily on Symbian, may have plummeted 36 per cent in the quarter, analysts said, and will likely have a damaging effect on Nokia’s overall revenue and profit. Industry watchers are already saying that the company is likely to have made a loss of €91.6 million in the fourth quarter, with sales down 21 per cent at around €10 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Commenting on the decline in Symbian sales, Goldman Sachs analyst Tim Boddy issued a note claiming that Nokia remains in a challenging transition period. “First-half device sales are likely to be soft as Lumia demand ramps up only gradually and Symbian declines steepen,” he wrote.

This worry regarding Lumia sales volumes has been highlighted by Neil Mawston, a director at research firm Strategy Analytics. Speaking to Dow Jones Newswire, Mawston said investors are focusing too much on Nokia’s latest smartphones so soon after their release, and given they’re only available in a handful of countries.

“It’s too soon to judge,” Mawston said. “If you look back to Apple’s iPhone performance in 2007 and Google’s Android in 2008, they had a sluggish start the first quarter after launch and people started to write them off, but new models came a year or so later and sales rocketed.”

For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this Dow Jones Newswire article

Related Articles:
Report: Nokia under pressure to slash Lumia 710 pricing in UK
Nokia, Microsoft boosted by bullish Credit Suisse report on Windows Phone
Nokia’s Elop: Boosting Windows Phone volumes is the top priority
Rumour Mill: O2 reverses course, agrees to sell Nokia’s Lumia phones in Germany

FierceWireless

Quick news from around the Web

@FierceWireless: RT @JohnPaczkowski: #Apple Building 2 Million iPads Per Month, But Shooting for 3 Million. Article $AAPL | Follow @FierceWireless

> Sprint Nextel’s Samsung Epic 4G went on sale Tuesday, and according to Sprint the gadget “became one of Sprint’s best-selling devices for first-day sales.” Release

> Net1 said it launched a mobile payments effort with an unnamed, top-five U.S. wireless carrier. Release

> Alcatel-Lucent completed LTE tests over spectrum for public safety. Article

> Standard & Poor’s may upgrade Motorola. Article

Mobile Content News

> Mobile users are flocking to Twitter at record rates. Article

> Google is hoping to debut an Internet-based digital music service that would launch later this year. Article

> Research firm Analysys Mason estimates mobile operators could lose up to billion in annual voice, SMS and data revenue because of customers that decide to switch operators over their mobile content offerings. Article

> U.S. Cellular will use Loopt’s location platform to provide LBS services to its customers. Article

> Mobile is playing a key role in Google’s renewal of its deal with AOL. Article

> Apple and Facebook could not come to an agreement about connecting Facebook’s service with Apple’s new Ping social networking program. Article

> Hewlett-Packard’s Palm temporarily suspended new webOS developer approvals due to a virtual keyboard leak. Article

> Apple’s iOS platform is now the third most popular Internet platform, behind Mac and Windows. Article

> The Mobile Marketing Association announced a repositioning that the group said will help it “get brands and agencies to increase spend on a channel they’re now aware of.” Article

European Wireless News

> The Wall Street Journal reported that additional carriers will begin selling the iPhone in Germany, bringing an end to Deutsche Telekom’s exclusive hold on the gadget. Article (sub. req.)

> Vodafone Germany announced LTE tiered data pricing. Article

And finally… Painting a building with your smartphone? Article

FierceWireless

Quick news from around the Web

@FierceWireless: RT @JohnPaczkowski: 2011 iPad Sales: 25 Million? 18 Million? Well, a Big Number, Anyway. Article | Follow @FierceWireless

> Microsoft is cutting hundreds of jobs across the company, according to reports, mainly in its marketing department. Article

> Telecom New Zealand said it will shut down its CDMA network. Article

> How many Kins did Microsoft sell? Facebook figures indicate it’s around 9,000. Article

> Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo is looking to provide 3G connections to video game consoles. Article (sub. req.)

Mobile Content News

> Mobile games publisher Glu Mobile announced a definitive agreement to sell .5 million worth of common stock and warrants. Article

> Verizon Wireless launched a new mobile marketing effort promoting the July 16 release of the sci-fi thriller “Inception.” Article

> Twitter now averages more than 800 million search queries per day. Article

> Yahoo numbers show a growing number of female iPad users. Post

> YouTube introduced a new mobile version of its video website. Article

> Qualcomm will test its FLO mobile TV service in Taiwan. Article

European Wireless News

> Vodafone Germany has indicated it will launch LTE services targeted at rural areas within the next 12 months. Article

> Developers should be focusing on refining their gaming and social networking applications, forecasts the mobile Internet firm Volantis. Article

Broadband Wireless News

> It looks like Verizon Wireless may soon launch an EV-DO-based femtocell that delivers 3G data services in addition to voice. Article

> An Alvarion executive said the company will add TD-LTE to its platform in the next few years. Article

And finally… Ford will include a “do not disturb” button in its vehicles to discourage texting while driving. Article

FierceWireless

Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) said it had a blockbuster opening sales day with its HTC Evo 4G smartphone, which broke the one-day sales record previously held by the Samsung Instinct and Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) Pre. According to Sprint, the number of Evo devices the carrier sold on Friday was three times the number of Instinct and Pre units sold over their first three days on the market combined.

Though Sprint did not disclose the actual sales figure, BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk estimated Sprint sold at least 250,000 Evos over the weekend, but noted “it would also be reasonable to speculate that sales could have topped 300,000 this weekend given the pre-ordering appointments that extended throughout the weekend.” David Dixon, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, was more bullish, predicting the carrier sold 320,000 units, gaining 100,000 new customers and 220,000 upgrades.

Customer interest appeared to take its toll on Sprint’s systems. In a statement, the carrier said some stores–including Best Buy, RadioShack and Wal-Mart–were not able to keep up with the demand. Sprint spokeswoman Michelle Leff Mermelstein told FierceWireless the carrier saw higher-than-normal wait times for activations due to high volumes.

“Our servers were slowed down but we worked hard to make the customer experience a positive one,” in some cases writing activation orders up by hand, she said. “Think of this like calling the airlines during a snowstorm or tropical weather incident where everyone is flooding the call centers at once–call volumes and wait times were longer than we would like to see but we worked hard to process every activation as quickly as possible.” AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) has recorded similar problems in the past with iPhone launches.

Regarding inventory shortages, Mermelstein said Sprint is “bringing more devices into stores on a regular basis with many stores actually getting daily shipments.” She described the shortages as a “temporary situation,” and explained that the carrier is working with HTC to ease the inventory constraints as soon as possible.

Shortages of high-end HTC phones are turning into a trend, it seems; Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) is having trouble keeping up with demand for the HTC Droid Incredible.

Sprint is banking on the Evo to turn into a solid hit as well as serve as a showcase for Clearwire’s (NASDAQ:CLWR) mobile WiMAX network as it looks to win back postpaid subscribers. The phone costs 9.99 with a two-year contract and after a 0 mail-in rebate for a new line or eligible upgrade.

For more:
- see this release
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this Engadget post
- see this BTIG blog post (sub. req.)
- see this BTIG blog post (sub. req.)
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)

Related Articles:
Sprint launches HTC Evo amid buzz, bugs
Sprint launching HTC Evo June 4 for 9
4G phones: The promise and the peril
Sprint won’t support Google’s Nexus One

FierceWireless

WiMAX equipment and device revenues dropped slightly in the first quarter, down 2 percent to 3 million, according to a new report from research firm Infonetics Research. However, despite the decline, which Infonetics attributed to a seasonally weak first quarter, the firm said WiMAX revenue growth likely will still remain healthy throughout the year. The report also said that although Russian carrier Yota’s decision to switch from WiMAX to LTE is a blow to the WiMAX community, Yota is only one operator out of hundreds supporting WiMAX worldwide. Release

FierceWireless

Bloomberg News
Updated to note technical issues
Sprint Nextel Corp. said its new HTC Corp. Evo 4G handset broke the company’s one-day record for sales of a single phone.

The carrier likely sold 320,000 of the devices at its debut on Friday, David Dixon, an FBR Capital Markets analyst, said in a report today. Sprint may have gained 100,000 new customers and 220,000 upgrades, he said. Sprint didn’t provide a specific sales figure in its statement today.

read more

Sprint Connection | News and views on Sprint Nextel –

Friday sales of the well-reviewed
HTC EVO 4G were the highest number of a single phone sold in one day ever for Sprint – which broke the records held by both Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre.

The total number of HTC
EVO 4G smartphones sold on launch day was three times the number of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold over their first three days on the market combined.

Walter Piecyk at BTIG Research estimated Sprint sold at least 250,000 HTC EVO 4G smartphones over the weekend, and speculated that sales could have topped 300,000 this weekend given the pre-ordering appointments that throughout the weekend

FBR Capital Markets’ David Dixon, calculated that Sprint sold 320,000 HTC EVO 4G smartphones, gaining 100,000 new customers and 220,000 upgrades.

The great HTC EVO 4G sales led to temporary shortages of the
device at some of the 22,000 sales locations across the United States,
including Sprint retail stores, national retail partners including
RadioShack, Best Buy and Walmart, and indirect dealers.

Sprint in a news released today, reported that they and HTC
are  working around the clock to increase inventory in all
sales channels. Additional shipments are arriving in retail stores on a
regular basis with many stores seeing daily deliveries.

Top
10 Best Things 2Do While Waiting for Your HTC Droid Incredible and HTC
EVO 4G

WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

Sprint Nextel Corp. said sales of its
RCR Wireless News