The profits from mobile phone-maker Nokia Ovj may be the smallest in recent history for the company in its third quarter. The change, estimated to reflect the smallest profits since 2001, may reflect delays in products and price competition.

The company has a new chief executive, Stephen Elop, who took the helm of the organization in September. Elop is determined to take back share from Google Inc. and Apple Inc. This reportis the first since Elop started as the head of the company.

Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, experienced difficulties recently with delays in development of new software, which in turn delayed shipments of its first smartphone, the Symbian -bsaed N8,to the fourth quarter and lowered its selling price. On average, estimates for shipments of all ofNokia' s phones equaled 115 million, which represented an increase over last year of 6 per cent.

Elop, a former executive at Microsoft Corp., replaced former chief executive Olli-PekkaKallasvuo. Kallasvuo was blamed by consumers and investors for inadequate competition withthe iPhone and Android-based devices.

In an interview with BusinessWeek, Andy Perkins, an analyst at Societe Generale, downplayed the expected results, saying that "The third-quarter results are less important than they' ve historically been because people are really waiting for the new CEO to find out what his views are on a number of issues, including thehigh-end operating systems."

Perkins asserted that " Any comments there will perhaps be moreimportant than the results themselves."
Nokia' s market value is now only 28.9 billion euros, compared to Apple' s 282.7 billion euros.Shares in Nokia have decreased in value over 60 percent since Apple rolled out the iPhone in2007. Since Elop' s start date as CEO on September 21, Nokia' s stock has actually fallen 2.8 percent.

In an interview with Kauppalehti Optio, a Finnish financial magazine, Elop adds that " internally, changes have already begun" at his company.