Sprint, Nokia Shares Tumble Again (S, NOK, HTCKF, AAPL, MSFT)

Shares in Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) are both down more than -5% in mid-afternoon trading today. There’s not specific news to account for the drop, but we might be able to venture a guess.Earlier today Taiwan’s HTC Corp. (OTC: HTCKF) said that it would ship 12-13 million phones this quarter, a total that is less than the company shipped in the third quarter and considerably less than the 15 million some analysts had been expecting. The drop in HTC shipments is very likely rubbing off on both Sprint and Nokia, two of the weaker smartphone vendors.Sprint has just begun shipping the iPhone from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), and Nokia has released its first smartphone based on the Windows Phone operating system from Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). But the competition for smartphone sales, as we noted earlier today, is heading toward a battle based on features and price.

For Sprint, that could mean that the company could end up losing even more money on each iPhone than the company previously thought, as it does everything it can to attract subscribers. For Nokia and Microsoft, their first phone might be found wanting in both features and price, forcing Nokia to cut its margins and hope for the best when the next round of phones is released in the first quarter of next year.

Neither scenario is encouraging for investors. At about 2:30 this afternoon, Sprint shares are down -5.33%, at $2.58, in a 52-week range of $2.10-$6.45. Nokia shares are off about -5.1%, at $6.82, in a 52-week range of $4.82-$121.75.

Paul Ausick