Nokia's exceeding expectations in US but UK more challenging says CEO Elop

Given that it's just posted a depressing set of financial results, it's been up to Nokia CEO Stephen Elop to demonstrate his plan to bring the company through to the other side.

"We are navigating through a significant company transition in an industry environment that continues to evolve and shift quickly. Over the last year we have made progress on our new strategy, but we have faced greater than expected competitive challenges," he said in a statement.

The good

The good news is that Nokia has released four Lumia devices to general acclaim. It's sold over two million devices to-date

At least one Lumia device is now available in 45 countries, with 31 new countries added in 2012.

Perhaps more importantly, Elop says that the company has "exceeded expectations in markets including the United States", where it's just launched the flagship Lumia 900 with AT&T.

The bad

Yet, as seems to be the case with Nokia, for every step forward, there's a step back.

"Establishing momentum in certain markets including the UK has been more challenging," Elop confesses.

In terms of how Nokia is going to address the issue, Elop says it will increase advertising, add new features, and focus on its go-to-market activities.

Bottom up

While it struggles in the smartphone market, Nokia's still very active in feature phones.

It says it's going to add seven devices to its Asha Series 40 range; something Elop called 'taking deliberate measures to renew and strength its line-up'.

[source: Nokia]