“Nokia Oyj (NOK1V)’s first phones running Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) software may have sold enough units last year to help rebuild investor confidence in the Finnish company, which lost $19 billion in market value in 2011.”

“The Lumia handsets, which went on sale in Europe in November, probably sold 1.3 million units globally to operators and retailers by the end of last year, according to the average estimate of 22 analysts compiled by Bloomberg. The projections range from 800,000 to 2 million and only one analyst predicted sales of fewer than 1 million handsets.”

“Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop has staked the future of Nokia’s smartphone business on the Lumia series, after deciding almost a year ago that the Espoo, Finland-based company would retire its homegrown Symbian and MeeGo handsets. The early shipment figures are important because investors had doubted the alliance with Microsoft could compete with Apple’s iPhone and devices running on Android, developed by Google Inc.”

“First-quarter estimates range from 1.5 million to 6 million. The smartphone market may have grown 50 percent last year, Gartner Inc. analysts estimated in November, compared with 13.9 percent growth in 2008.”

“Nokia’s fourth-quarter results will also include the N9, a Lumia 800 lookalike running Nokia smartphone software called MeeGo, which began shipping in September at prices from 480 euros. The N9 may have sold 1.4 million units last quarter, Pareto Oehman analyst Helena Nordman-Knutson said.”

“People forget it’s not all about Lumia, there’s the N9 as well and it’s part of this transition,” she said. “With these new devices the average selling price could lift because the proportion of lower-priced smartphones will decrease.”

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