Nokia's comeback attempt hobbled by poor smartphone sales

Nokia's attempt to make a comeback via the US seems to be not working out with its Lumia smartphones failing to stop consumers from snapping up Apple Inc iPhones and handsets running Google's Android software.

The company reporting a seventh straight drop in quarterly sales, skipped a dividend for the first time in at least 143 years in a bid to retain cash for its comeback attempt

Nokia shares were down for a second day following the Finnish company saying yesterday it sold around 700,000 handsets in North America in the holiday quarter, a fraction of the tens of millions of iPhones and Android handsets sold in the period.

Smartphones running Windows Phone, including the Lumia, made up 3.6 per cent of purchases at AT&T during the year-end holiday quarter.

According to chief executive officer Stephen Elop, the US was a key market in Nokia's global turnaround, and last year it lined up AT&T Inc, the second-largest US carrier, to sell its flagship Lumia 920.

However, Nokia has so far failed to communicate why it would make sense for people to switch from Apple and Android handsets, say cokmentators.