According to an article posted over on business week, Nokia Oyi may report their 2nd lowest profit in over a decade for the first quarter as rivals like the Apple iPhone and Android smartphones reduce prices.

Net income might have tripled to €404 million from €122 million the previous year as orders reduced due to the recession, however according to a survey conducted by Bloomberg of 22 analysts, first quarter profit for 08 was €1.22 billion.

The head of research for Helsinki’s FIM Bank, Michael Schroeder has said, “This level of profitability is the new normal. It’s far away from the levels before 2009. It’s quite clear the competition is much tougher these days than it was a couple of years ago.”

The iPhone has been brought down from a luxury device to an “upscale mass-market handset” by Apple while Google’s Android platform is now available on numerous smartphones including the Google own branded device the Nexus One. This and a boom in low price mobile phones available on the grey market in Asia has forced Nokia to revise their market share figures for March.

The average analyst estimate shows that Nokia sales in the first quarter more than likely rose 5.4% to €9.78 billion. Nokia has lost half their market since the iPhone first appeared back in 2007, and Nokia revised their first quarter 09 market share to 32% on the 12th of March from 37% due to better estimate for the growth of new Asian vendors making grey market and other mobile handsets.