I hate to say I told so, but I did. No, really, I did. Many times. You see, the mobile space is a difficult one to compete in. It moves so fast that by the time you have a new product, it is already old. Companies that were the market leaders 30 seconds ago (ok, a few years, but you know what I mean) are now either dead or on the verge of a brutal death. These include BlackBerry, Palm, HP, and some would have you believe, Microsoft and Nokia as well. Except, Nokia (and by extension, Microsoft) are taking a different route than say, BlackBerry.

Nokia does not stop innovating, it never has. Yes, Lumia sales were not too optimistic there for a while, but that did not stop the company from pushing forward and creating excellent mobile devices. Say what you will about Windows Phone or the lack of 3rd party apps, you cannot deny that the Lumia phones, as hardware, are very impressive.

Of course, one cannot talk about Lumia without talking about their photography abilities, namely Nokia’s Pureview technology. Nokia phones, whether it is the 920, the 1020, or the new 1520 take absolutely stunning pictures, the likes of which have never been seen on a mobile device before. That, my friends, is what is called innovation.

And now, the numbers are in and all of a sudden that innovation is paying off. Now, let me very clear. Nokia, as a company, has always been very strong in emerging markets. Feature phones and even cheaper smartphones, like Asha devices, sell very well there. Nokia, however, always had one pain point, one major pain point that prevented them from dominating the mobile world. Nokia was never really strong in the US, at least it hasn’t been for years since it embraced Windows Phone.

All that changes now. The latest numbers are, one might say, extremely optimistic. Nokia device volume in the US is now up a whopping 367%! That is huge. But wait, Nokia had previously been a failure on this front so is that number really so  impressive? Well, let’s take a look.

Nokia’s Q3 earnings report shows some astounding numbers. See some examples below:

• Net sales of $7.79 billion
• Profit of $162 million
• Context: The company posted a €115 million loss last quarter, and a whopping €564 million loss this time last year.
• 8.8 million Lumia devices in Q3, up from the 7.4 million sold last quarter
• North American Lumia sales up from 500k last quarter to 1.4 million in Q3. Almost 3x in one quarter!

The bottom line is this. Nokia is not out of the water yet and putting aside the Microsoft acquisition, it seems that the strategy the company has chosen is working. I guess this is a big stamp or approval for the Finnish company and a lesson for all other companies. Innovate, innovate, then innovate some more.

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