Industry analysts have been predicting for months that the mobile phone market is in retreat.
Nokia is the latest to announce its sales growth will be slower than expected in the first quarter of the new year.
The industry, which has seen two huge years of growth, is nearing its saturation point in key markets like Europe and Japan.
Nokia's fourth-quarter financial results beat Wall Street estimates by just two cents. The Finland-based phone maker said its sales growth will be slower than expected in the first quarter of the new year.
Mobile phone users also seem to be waiting for the next generation of Web-enabled phones to hit the market before opening their wallets again.
That is unlikely to happen until the first so-called 3G, or third-generation, phones are on the market in the second half of the year, analysts say.
Gloomy outlook
Nokia's gloomy outlook for 2001 also completes a hat trick of bad news from the top three mobile phone makers in the world.
Last week, Ericsson said it was turning over production of its mobile phones to Flextronics, a Singapore-based contract manufacturer. The Ericsson brand will survive; the company just won't be making any of its phones.
It had earlier cut its 2001 sales growth forecast to between 15 percent and 20 percent. Ericsson had expected sales to grow more than 20 percent.
Motorola has also made cost-cutting moves, including halting mobile phone manufacturing at its plant in Harvard, Ill., and firing about 2,500 workers.
Qualcomm was the first major player to get out of handset making, telling the world in December that it was selling its manufacturing arm to gadget maker Kyocera.
