After its alliance with Microsoft a year back, Nokia has reinforced its position in the smartphone market in the last quarter; shares of the company soared 7% higher. The Finnish-based company on Thursday said that it sold 19.6 million smartphones while Analysts had predicted sales of 18.5 million smartphones. This same period, company rival Apple sold 37 million iPhones. The Lumia models that went on sale in November also significantly helped the company; expanding into large markets like China and India.

“There might be a bit of relief there because people were very concerned after Apple results that Nokia would have to warn significantly more,” said Alexander Peterc, an Exane BNP Paribas analyst in London. “It’s less about the quality of earnings themselves and more to do with the relief that it’s not worse.”

Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop is very confident of the Lumia which sold over 1 million units to date. “In the war of ecosystems, clearly there are some strong contenders already on the field,” Elop said in a statement. “And with Lumia, we have demonstrated that we belong on the field” he added.

Nokia is also keen on reviving its cheaper headset range which took a dip due to severe competition in Asian markets. It believes that its Asha line of dual-SIM phones can turn the story around in its favour.