Nokia’s average selling price above expectations

The average selling price of a Nokia handset globally was 103 euros in the first quarter of 2006, the Finnish handset maker pre-announced on Tuesday.

This was above its previous forecast that the average selling price (ASP) “in the first quarter would be flat to slightly down sequentially”. In the fourth quarter of 2005, the ASP was 99 euros. The company did not make any forecast for the second quarter of 2006.

Earlier this month, the company announced that it was going into the mobile applications hosting market with Nokia Mobility Hosting.

Research group Ovum forecasts that the size of the hosting market will double to 1.35 billion euros by 2009, from around 670m in 2005.

"We feel operating service platforms is one area that some operators will offload to outside parties in the coming years," said Jean-Charles Doineau, Service infrastructure practice leader, Ovum.

“Only a handful of vendors have started to look at the potential in this market, and Nokia is one of them.”

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