Also loses top place in phone sales to Apple

Not a great day for Nokia, with hefty losses reported, as well as a loss of status as the world’s number one mobile phone retailer.

But let’s deal with those figures first. In the second quarter of 2011, which is just a three-month period, the company lost £427 million, as the public turned its back on Symbian, not helped by the uncertainty of the platform’s future and growing competition from both Android and the iPhone. Specifically, Nokia’s phone sales dropped 18% in the quarter and profits dropped 44%.

Obviously Nokia is looking for salvation, which is likely (or hopefully) to come from the deal with Microsoft to make Windows Phone 7 handsets. Sadly, those phones aren’t likely to hit the shelves anytime soon, early 2012 at best, so Nokia might well have a couple more sticky sales result days coming up yet. More if the Microsoft collaboration doesn’t come off.

But there’s that one final insult for Nokia – its dominant position at the top of the mobile market is no more. According to Apple Insider, Nokia smartphone shipments sunk to 16.7 million units, down 34% year over year, which is now short of the record 20.34 million iPhones Apple sold in the same period. The data officially makes Apple larger than Nokia in terms of unit sales, something that must hurt for the once untouchable Nokia.