North American Sales of Nokia Lumia Double in Q3

This week, Nokia released its latest earnings for Q3 2013 and the numbers continue to rise. Nokia has been doing very well in most areas of the world. One place that it has been lacking however has been in North America – but it appears Nokia has found a market in this region.

Third quarter results bear this out. Not only has Nokia improved its Lumia sales figures worldwide, but North American sales show a 366 percent increase year over year. The figures show that between Q2 and Q3, sales in North America have more than doubled. The previous quarter reported 500,000 units shipped while this quarter has the numbers at 1.4 million.

The second quarter had shown record high sales for Nokia of 7.4 million. The third quarter has seen these numbers continue to grow. It now stands at 8.8 million in the latest quarter. In fact, this is about a 200 percent increase from this time last year when the numbers were at 2.09 million.

One possibility for Nokia doing so well lately is the low budget Lumia 520 and the 521 and also the fact that it has been getting more phones on Verizon. A reason seen for the growth in North America is Nokia’s "rolling thunder" approach to the U.S.

Nokia hasn't played an important role in the U.S. cellphone market for quite a while. I will say though that my first “real” mobile phone was a Nokia feature phone, the 8260. That bit of information aside, having failed to make an impact on American consumers for the last few years, Nokia is now making the U.S. a key target for its new Windows Phone push.

This push has a name on the project and it is Rolling Thunder. The metaphor shows a gradual progression and buildup toward a crescendo of awesome smartphones. Nokia just introduced a new six inch Lumia 1520 Windows Phone. In addition, it also introduced a low cost Lumia 1320 also with a six inch display. Both devices are expected to go on sale sometime next month. That means that they may have an impact on next quarter's earnings.

If the deal is approved, early 2014 could see Nokia being owned by Microsoft.