LONDON — Nokia reported better than anticipated profits and sales for the fourth quarter despite fierce price pressures in the mobile phones market.

Nokia (Helsinki, Finland) said net profits for the quarter ended December 2006 came in a Euros 1.27 billion ($1.65 billion), up 19 percent on the corresponding period last time. Sales for the quarter were worth Euros euro11.7 billion ($15.2 billion), up 13 percent on the last quarter of 2006.

Net sales for the year improved by 20 percent, reaching Euros 41.1 billion ($53.4 billion) while net profits were up 18 percent to Euros 5.5 billion.

Nokia said it expected industry-wide mobile volumes in 2007 to grow by up to 10 per cent from around 978m handsets and that average selling prices would continue to decline, "reflecting the increasing impact of the emerging markets and competitive factors in general."

Earlier Thursday (Jan. 25), market research groups Strategy Analytics and IDC suggested shipments in 2006 just topped the billion mark, and Strategy Analytics suggested the market would grow by 12 percent this year.

Nokia said the ASPs of its models continued to decline, and in the fourth quarter of last year averaged Euros 89 ($118) compared with Euros 93 in the third quarter.