Nokia has reported a loss in its third quarter results, revealing an operating loss of 426 million euros with sales dropping 20%.

This compares dramatically to the same period in 2008, when the Finnish phone manufacturer saw a profit of 1.5 billion euros.

The reasonably good news comes in with Nokia's mobile device market share for the third quarter this year at 38%, not a percentage less than it was a year ago, and stable compared to the second quarter of this year. Device sales were up 5% from the previous quarter.

As far as phones go, Nokia shipped 4.5 million Nseries and 4.4 million Eseries devices during the third quarter - sounds a fair whack - but this is down from the combined 9.3 million Nseries and Eseries devices shipped in Q2.

"The demand for mobile devices improved in many markets during Q3. With the average selling price of our devices holding firm quarter-on-quarter, our higher device volumes translated into increased net sales in our Devices & Services business", said Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo.

"Our volumes and net sales were, however, somewhat constrained by component shortages we encountered across the portfolio".

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