Nokia's mobile phone sales were weak in Asia and Europe

The Finnish company said the news, that first-quarter sales were down 2% year on year, was due to weak handset sales.

It also said poor sales in its multi media unit had led to a new 6.6bn-euro (�4.3bn; $7.9bn) sales estimate.

Shares in Nokia ended down 18.6% on the New York Stock Exchange following the news, losing $3.94 to close at $17.21.

Gaps in portfolio

Nokia said mobile phone sales were weak in Europe and Asia, with lower-than-expected volumes and a product mix weighted more towards the cheaper models.

"Due to certain gaps in its product portfolio, mainly in the mid range, the company was not able to fully capitalise on positive market developments," a Nokia statement said.

Analysts had hoped for good news from Nokia on demand for cheap handsets in emerging countries, and advanced multimedia camera phones in mature markets.

But Nokia chief executive Jorma Ollila said: "We have not been able to grow with the market in the United States and Europe, where our share has been very strong."

'Not as competitive'

Some analysts estimated that Nokia had lost up to four percentage points of global market share from the 35% it achieved in the fourth quarter.

Mr Ollila said Nokia would regain lost ground in the remainder of the year with new models.

"All of those [new models] will have a meaningful impact, but in the early part of the year we will not be quite as competitive as we've been earlier."

Nokia said global mobile phone unit sales grew by more than 25% in the first quarter, while its own handset sales increased by 19%.

"It's quite bad news as Nokia is losing share in mobile phones and the multimedia [unit] is not meeting expectations," said analyst Petri Arjama at Handelsbanken.