Nokia has hailed a "transformative" quarter during which it sold 8.8m Lumia handsets.
The Finnish firm’s Lumia sales were up from the record high 7.4m figure last quarter, and up from 2.9m in the corresponding quarter last year.
Device sales also improved in North America, shipping 1.4m in the third quarter compared to 500,000 in the previous quarter, while the business has just released new phablets and its first tablet computer.
It recorded overall net sales of $7.79bn and an unexpected profit of $162m – the latter in sharp contrast to last quarter, when the company posted a $158m loss, and a $777m loss in the third quarter last year.
Nokia’s devices and services business is being bought by Microsoft for $7.2bn, a deal expected to be voted on by shareholders in mid-November and closed early next year, which will see the handset maker’s former CEO Stephen Elop return to the desktop giant.
Nokia interim president and CFO, Timo Ihamuotila, said: "The third quarter was among the most transformative in our company’s history.
"We agreed on the sale of our handset operations to Microsoft, transactions which we believe will radically reshape the future of Nokia for the better.
"Subject to the completion of the Microsoft transaction, Nokia will have significantly improved earnings profile, strong financial position and a solid foundation from which to invest."
It is expected to focus on its network and HERE Maps business sectors after the sale, but those were down slightly on the previous quarter.
Its network division fell 7% to $3.6bn and HERE dropped 9% to $0.27bn.
But Risto Siilasmaa, chairman and interim CEO, said: Our strategy work is making good progress and it has already become clear that there are meaningful opportunities for all of our business areas: NSN, HERE and Advanced Technologies.
"In all of these businesses, we have strong assets that we continue to invest in for the long term benefit of our customers and shareholders."
Ihamuotila added: "We are pleased that NSN and HERE both generated solid profitability in what was a seasonally weak third quarter and at a time when we continue to make significant R&D investments into future growth opportunities."
