Two years ago, Stephen Elop likened Nokia to a burning oil platform, referring to the intensecompetition from Apple's iPhone and Google's Android operating system. There is little in the Finnish handset maker's full-year earnings to suggest the CEO has since located the fire extinguisher.

One of Nokia's self-inflicted problems has been that it dumped its in-house operating system, Symbian, in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone in February 2011, but took 10 months to get a product running on the platform, the Lumia, to market. In a slow-moving business, it might have gotten away with it. But Samsung Electronics was just powering up. Nokia's share of global smartphone volumes touched 4% in the third quarter of last year, down from 23% in the first quarter of 2011, notes Strategy Analytics. Samsung's share has almost tripled to 34%.

Nokia is optimistic that Lumia sales will take off. It says that features like its camera and maps set the latest versions of the high-end smartphone launched last November apart and that wireless operators are supportive of a third ecosystem. But despite a fourth-quarter improvement in gross margins and lower operating expenses, Nokia still needs to ship double the number of phones just to break even on smartphones, estimates Barclays.

There is also a risk of the fire spreading. Nokia's regular mobile-phone business, which accounts for more than half of group operating profit, is under pressure from cheaper upstarts based on Android. Sales fell by a fifth last year, while the average selling price of its phones dropped 11% to 31 ($41.30). Last year's results were also flattered by a turnaround at its telecom-equipment joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks. But NSN's operating-profit margins are forecast to drop back to around 3% in the first quarter, from 14.4% in the fourth quarter.

Nokia appears to be through the worst of its cash burn, but it may not be over. Net cash on its balance sheet fell by 1.2 billion to 4.4 billion last year. Nokia has proposed not to pay a dividend this year. But it also expects another 750 million in restructuring related cash outflows, the same as last year's dividend payout.

The shares have more than halved since Mr. Elop joined in September 2010, and the company now has an enterprise value equivalent to 25 times forecast 2014 operating profit, based on Barclays estimates. Investors may be overestimating Mr. Elop's fire-fighting skills.

RENÉE SCHULTES

• platform [´plætfɔ:m]   n.(平)台；讲台；站台   (初中英语单词)
• competition [,kɔmpi´tiʃən]   n.比赛；竞争   (初中英语单词)
• system [´sistəm]   n.系统，体系，制度   (初中英语单词)
• running [´rʌniŋ]   a.奔跑的；流动的   (初中英语单词)
• despite [di´spait]   prep.尽管   (初中英语单词)
• improvement [im´pru:vmənt]   n.改进，改善，进步   (初中英语单词)
• pressure [´preʃə]   n.压榨 vt.对...施压力   (初中英语单词)
• venture [´ventʃə]   n.投机 v.冒险；敢于   (初中英语单词)
• enterprise [´entəpraiz]   n.企业；雄心；胆识   (初中英语单词)
• intense [in´tens]   a.强烈的；紧张的   (高中英语单词)
• billion [´biljən]   num.万亿   (高中英语单词)
• related [ri´leitid]   a.叙述的；有联系的   (高中英语单词)
• equivalent [i´kwivələnt]   a.相等的 n.同等物   (高中英语单词)
• gotten [´gɔtn]   get的过去分词   (英语四级单词)
• dividend [´dividənd, -dend]   n.被除数；股息   (英语四级单词)
• earnings [´ə:niŋz]   n.收益；报酬；获得   (英语六级单词)
• strategy [´strætidʒi]   n.兵法；战略   (英语六级单词)
• forecast [´fɔ:kɑ:st]   vt.&n.预测；预报   (英语六级单词)