The recession has rung the alarm bell even for the world's leading maker of mobile phones - Nokia Corp! A 69 percent plunge in its fourth-quarter profits along with a lowered forecast for 2009 indicate that the leader is sailing in the same 'recession-hit' boat as the others!

The drop in the profits of the Finnish company came as a result of a lower demand for its phones during the holiday season, chiefly in up-and-coming markets like China; and the lower view for the year marks the exceedingly low visibility.

In the quarter that ended December 31, Nokia's net profit dropped to 576 million euros, or 0.15 euro a share, from its same quarter earlier year profit of 1.84 billion euros, or
0.47 euro a share.

With the sharp drop in the demand for phones, the 19% decline in sales, to 12.66 billion euros, missed the 13 billion euros sales estimates. Even as the fourth quarter is traditionally considered stronger than the others, especially for phone-makers, Nokia shipped 113.1 million handsets, which marks a 15% fall - its unusual sequential slip of
4%.

With regard to the dismal scenario in the fourth quarter, for the industry in general, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said: "In recent weeks, the macroeconomic environment has deteriorated rapidly, with even weaker consumer confidence, unprecedented currency volatility and credit tightness continuing to impact the mobile communications industry."