Analysts expect that Nokia sold 4 million Windows phones in the second quarter -- roughly doubling from the first quarter --  but still only a fraction of Apple's expected sales of 30 million iPhones or Samsung's 50 million smartphones.

Nokia shares -- which have dropped 84 percent since unveiling its Windows phones strategy -- closed at 1.37 euros on Wednesday in Helsinki, after hitting an 18-year low of 1.33 euros earlier in the session.

Once the world's dominant mobile phonemaker, Nokia was late to embrace smartphones and has lost out to Apple and Samsung Electronics in the most profitable part of the market.

Nokia is expected to report a net loss of 706 million euros and burn through more than 1 billion euros of cash in just three months, according to a Reuters poll of 38 analysts.

In June, the one-time darling of mobile telecoms announced redundancy talks aimed at slashing its worldwide workforce by 10,000, with nearly 4,000 jobs to go in Finland.

The downward momentum could be hard to reverse, says wireless analyst Stefan Constantinescu.

"History has shown that once you start falling, you can't get back up," Contantinescu told Yle News. "And they're falling quite hard, ever since Stephen Elop took the role as CEO they've lost 40,000 jobs and it's probably just the start. These 10,000 that were announced in June, there will be probably be another round. Right now their stock price is actually worth less than the company has in assets, which is a very strange situation."

However, other analysts believe expectations are now so low Nokia may be able to rebound and surprise the doubters.

"Fears have been elevated to a level that may be greatly detached from reality," said Nordea analyst Sami Sarkamies. "The most interesting will be to see what the company says about the second half."