That Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone maker would show profits this financial quarter was known to one and all in the UK. But Nokia surpassed all expectations by reporting a whopping 57% rise in its smartphone sales. Nokia has sold a mammoth 21.5 million units for the first quarter ending on March 31, 2010.

Though the figures showed a fall of 21% on the previous quarters figures, the world's leading mobile phones maker witnessed a net slaes of 9.5 billion euros. This is an increase of 3% when considered year on year.

Again, Nokia's services revenue experienced a low of 19% on the figures recored for the fourth quarter of 2009. But the services revenue also made a jump of 8% on year on year consideration to 6.7 billion euros.

Further, the first quarter of 2010 saw Nokia's preliminary estimated mobile phone device market share touching 33%. This is a rise from the estimated 32% in the first quarter of 2009. And a fall from an estimated 35% in the fourth quarter of year 2009.

“In Q1, Nokia delivered both year-on-year net sales and operating profit growth. We continue to face tough competition with respect to the high end of our mobile device portfolio, as well as challenging market conditions on the infrastructure side,” stated Mr Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the chief executive officer of Nokia.

In the same context, Mr Kallasvuo observed that 'During the quarter, we also demonstrated our ability to deliver the Nokia smartphone experience to consumers on a global scale, with our smartphone shipments up by more than 50% year-on-year. The consumer response to the inclusion of our walk and drive navigation offering on our smartphones has been tremendous. Since launching in January, 10 million Nokia smartphone users around the world have downloaded the offering”.