Nokia has issued a statement warning that its third-quarter results will be significantly lower than expected.

The company is due to issue the numbers on 16 October but, in an unusual move by the market leader, Nokia has issued a statement warning that its market share will be lower than in the second quarter.

This is despite earlier predictions that it would match growth in the second quarter.

"Nokia expects the overall mobile device market in 2008 to be impacted by the weaker consumer confidence in multiple markets," Nokia said in a statement.

"However, Nokia continues to expect industry mobile device volumes in 2008 to grow 10 per cent or more from the approximately 1.14 billion units Nokia estimated for 2007.

"Nokia also continues to expect industry mobile device volumes in the third quarter of 2008 to be up sequentially."

The company also said that its market position would be hurt since it does not intend to cut prices on its products in the way that some other manufacturers have done.

Nokia explained that it would only chase market share when it was " sustainably profitable in the longer term".

Nokia has almost 40 per cent of the global mobile phone market, according to the latest figures from Gartner.