Still, even though revenue was down, Nokia executives noted that the company gained market share in the smartphone category. Nokia now has 40 percent market share in smartphones, up from 35 percent as of September. And the company's overall mobile handset market share increased to 39 percent from 38 percent in September.

Even though Nokia has always maintained its worldwide dominance in the smartphone market, it has faced stiff competition from competitors such as Research in Motion with its BlackBerry devices, and Apple with the iPhone.

Over the past year, the company had lost market share to these companies. But now it looks like Nokia could be making a turnaround in smartphones, mostly due to strong performance in China, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Strong growth in these regions helped offset sales declines in North America, South America, and Europe.