Nokia today announced its results for the third quarter of 2012, showing revenues had fallen again.

Nokia reported overall sales of €7.2bn for Q3 2012, down from €7.5bn in Q2 2012 and €9bn in Q3 2011.

Sales from the Nokia Siemens Networks division increased both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year to reach €3.5bn. But shipments of its flagship Lumia handsets – based on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system – fell from four million to 2.9 million.

However, analysts claimed this drop was expected, as customers wait for the launch of Nokia's new Lumia 920 smartphone range featuring Windows Phone 8, due at the end of this month.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop had already warned Q3 2012 would be tough but continued to look forward in his statement to investors.

"In Q3, we continued to manage through a tough transitional quarter for our smart devices business as we shared the exciting innovation ahead with our new line of Lumia products," Stephen Elop said.

"While we continue to focus on transitioning Nokia, we are determined to carefully manage our financial resources, improve our competitiveness, return our devices and services business to positive operating cash flow as quickly as possible, and ultimately provide more value to our shareholders."

Overall sales of mobile phones – including Lumias, Symbian-based smartphones and feature phones – did rise slightly, up from 73 million last quarter to 77 million.