As recently as September it was forecasting device sales of 760 million this year and its new estimates represents a 21% increase over industry sales in 2004.
Nokia gave its forecast of 858 million devices sales in 2006 at its Capital Market Days event in New York where the handset market leader aims to woo financial analysts with its targets for the future. It was, however, less bullish about mobile infrastructure, with a forecast of slight to moderate growth in 2006. Nokia said it believes the number of mobile subscriptions will reach 3 billion in 2008, two years earlier than it predicted in February.
Nokia is sticking to its target of an operating margin target of 17% for the next two years. While the margin target is staying at 17% to 18% for mobile phones and multimedia devices, it has cut the infrastructure operating margin to 13%, rather than 14% it was aiming at last year.
Nokia COO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who is to become the next CEO, said the industry is consolidating around a few key players and is increasing in complexity. The winners will be the ones that can master this complexity and offer appealing products to a broad range of customers, he said.
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