TELECOMS & MOBILE
European smartphone sales top 2 million
26-01-2004
by
Over 1 million handhelds and over 2 million smartphones were shipped in EMEA in the last three months of 2003.
That is according to new research from Canalys which, according to the company, is evidence that the sector is gaining momentum. In the last six weeks, rival research companies IDC and Gartner put out equally strong figures for the mobile phone and PDA sectors.
By Canalys' definition, a handheld is a data-centric device such as a PDA or handheld computer that may or may not come with wireless connectivity features and voice communication capabilities. A smartphone is a device positioned mainly for voice communications, but also comes with advanced data features such as sophisticated calendars, word processors, contact databases, Internet browsing and other features. Both categories include devices that tend to be pricey and so far haven't sold in enormous volumes.
But according to the company's new research, about 3.5 million of both sorts of devices were shipped in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) during the three months to 31 December 2003, a rise of 117 percent over the year before. Nokia had the biggest market share overall at just over 50 percent. HP, Palm, Sony Ericsson and Motorola followed, with market shares that ranged from 11.7 percent to 4.1 percent.
In the data-centric market, where HP topped the list, 1.234 million devices were shipped in the three months, up almost 56 percent. HP has control of nearly 33 percent of the market, followed by Palm with nearly 25 percent. Last year Palm was on top with 48 percent, trailed by HP with around 19 percent. Germany's Medion and Japan's Sony took the third and fourth place.
"Handhelds have found a new lease of life with the arrival of competitively priced GPS navigation bundles," said Canalys senior analyst and director Chris Jones. "Vendors without navigation bundles will find it harder to get shelf space -- Palm and Sony have some catching up to do in this area. It will become more and more difficult to sell such devices purely on the basis of personal information management." He added that a rise in corporate IT expenditure helped boost handheld sales.
Finally, in the voice-centric area, more commonly known as the smartphone segment, about 2.24 million units were shipped, with 78 percent of those devices shipped by Nokia. Sony Ericsson and Motorola followed with 9.7 percent and 6.4 percent market share, respectively. Sony Ericsson's growth in the smartphone segment was particularly noteworthy, with shipments reaching 216,000 units in Q4 2003, up almost 1,000 percent compared to the year before.
"As enterprise spending on mobile device solutions grows, smart phone vendors will also want a piece of the action," said analyst Rachel Lashford. "Nokia continues to add to its range, and enjoyed a large initial ship out of the Nokia 6600 this quarter -- its most 'corporate' smartphone handset to date."
Creating successful email surveys: Denise Cox of email specialist Newsweaver argues that you can tap into your readers' likes or dislikes by surveying them.
