As is slowly becoming common-knowledge, Nokia’s handset business seems to be slowly decaying. Their margins are eroding, and their market presence is shifting towards the very bottom of the mobile handset food chain. Today we got just a few more indicators on how this is happening.

Nokia likes to push their massive sales volumes as evidence of their market domination (110 million units in Q3 of 2010), but that number only proves that Nokia is only selling low-margin commodities, and that their competitors have taken over the lucrative high-end sectors of the market.

Comparing the average handset sale price of Apple vs. Nokia is quite interesting. Based on latest figures from both companies, it looks like Apple is getting an average of $635 per unit, while Nokia is bringing in a measly $78. In my book, this means Nokia is now officially a low-end player.

I’d also completely ignore their smart-phone market presence figures, as they are clearly bogus. They reported 24 million smartphones sold this last quarter. Truthfully, I’d like to know the average sale price of those units, but I’m guessing it’s well below $200, and that they are absolutely NOT smartphones, and are therefore not comparable to Android and Apple devices sold in that same period. I believe Nokia has actually lost the smartphone battle a while ago, and are now holding on to low-end Symbian devices that are not in any way comparable to iPhone and Android devices.

How many real $400+ smartphones has Nokia sold from it’s high-end portfolio? I’m guessing it’s an embarrassing number.

Still, it’s clearly too early to write Nokia’s eulogy just yet — can it reinvent itself and get back in the game? Time will tell.