Nokia Beats Forecasts but Warns of Flat 1st Quarter

Finland’s Nokia Corp. posted healthy fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday, boosted by continued strength in handset sales, but warned of soft results ahead, confirming fears that the world’s most successful mobile phone maker is succumbing to a sector slowdown.

For the fourth quarter, Nokia said profit jumped 41% to $1 billion on a 46% rise in sales to $8.3 billion, slightly better than analysts expected.

But Nokia--once seen as largely immune to troubles affecting rivals Motorola Inc. of the United States and Sweden’s Ericsson--forecast flat earnings of 18 cents for the first quarter. It expects sales growth of 25% to 30% for the first quarter instead of the 35% rise it predicted in December.

Nokia also cut its forecast for 2001 industry-wide handset sales to 500 million to 550 million units from 550 million, although Chief Executive Jorma Ollila acknowledged that he was unable to predict where the industry was going.

“It’s just not possible to predict in the same way as it was in previous years,� he said, adding that uncertainty about the U.S. economy was a major influence.

Nokia estimated that more than 405 million phones were sold last year.

Nokia also pushed back the launch of its high-speed GPRS mobile phone--which will give “always on� Internet access--to the third quarter of this year from the first half, also confirming industry worries that GPRS will take longer to succeed than previously expected.

Nokia’s American depositary receipts fell $1.71 to close at $35.28 on the New York Stock Exchange.