Moto chips away at Nokia's market share

25-08-2006

by Emmet Ryan

Motorola continues to make in-roads into Nokia's share of the mobile phone market, increasing its share to 22 percent during the second quarter.

Around 229 million mobile phones were sold worldwide during the second quarter of 2006, an increase of 18 percent on the same period last year, according to research firm Gartner, which said the total number of handsets sold during the quarter increased by nearly 40 million on the same period last year.

Though Nokia maintained its top position in the market, increasing its share from 31.6 percent in 2005 to 33.6 percent, the Finnish giant is feeling the heat from its US rival Motorola whose Razr and Slvr phones are proving a worldwide hit.

During the quarter Motorola gained over 4 percent of the market to claim a 21.9 percent share, compared to 17.7 percent in 2005. The US mobile manufacturer sold 50.2 million handsets globally during the quarter, compared to the 77.1 million that Nokia shipped.

Third-placed Samsung lost ground during the quarter, dropping by 1.8 percent to an 11.1 percent share with sales of 25.5 million units. Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson's sales of 15.3 million handsets helped it to boost its market share to 6.7 percent, overtaking LG which dropped to 6.3 percent of the market with sales of 14.4 million.

Most regions recorded increased sales on the same period last year, though North America bucked the trend with sales dropping 3.5 percent to 38.6 million during the quarter.

"The second quarter of 2006 proved to be a difficult one in North America as network operators were unable to add new subscribers at the same rapid pace as in the first quarter of 2006," said Hugues De La Vergne, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner.

On the other hand, Latin America recorded sales of 28.2 million, an increase of 7 percent year-on-year. Having been the only region to record a drop in sales last year Japan bounced back with a 9 percent increase; around 11 million handsets were sold in the region compared to 10 million last year and 10.6 million in 2004. The rest of the Asia Pacific region recorded sales of 67.9 million, a 5.4 percent increase.

Western Europe recorded a 9 percent increase with sales in the region rising by 4.7 million to 41.1 million. The biggest increase was in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa; in all, 42.5 million handsets were sold across these regions, a 20 percent increase on 2005.

Growth in global sales has slowed since the first quarter when a 23.8 percent increase was recorded. Gartner, which said it expected the slowdown, is maintaining its forecast that 960 million handsets will be sold in 2006. The research firm also said it expect sales of 238 million in the third quarter.