Nokia now worth three months of Apple cash

[Yashaka]

Here’s the latest for NOK from Google Finance. See Nokia’s current market valuation? It’s barely hovering at $25.54 billion. This means Wall Street is now valuing the #1 handset maker in the world at about the same as Apple’s last quarterly revenue of $24.67 billion. Apple’s market valuation? $321.81 billion. Another way of looking at it? Nokia’s phone business could be also worth less than Skype.

Nokia yesterday issued profit warning, telling investors to brace for impact. Stephen Elop, the CEO, told investors on a conference call that “Android is gaining strength”, adding “Apple is Apple, of course”. as Apple and Android cut into its sales on the high-end and cheap Chinese phones ate its lunch on the low-end. Shares immediately stumble 18 percent, a thir****-year low for the company, erasing nearly four billion euros in market value. An increasing number of investors are now worried that by the time Stephen Elop pulls its magic tricks with Windows Phone, Nokia might surrender so much market share that it would never recover. Look no further than the latest numbers…

Even though Nokia is still the leading phone maker in the world, its market share has been evaporating at a rapid pace – especially in smartphones. According to IDC, Nokia went from a 38.8 smartphone market share in the first quarter of 2010 to 24.3 percent a year later, while Apple’s share grew from 15.7 percent to 18.7 percent in the same period. Nokia sold 24.2 million smartphone units versus 18.7 million iPhones, making Apple the second-best smartphone vendor globally.

[via]