GartnerGroup's Dataquest Says CDMA Was Best-Selling Mobile Handset Technology in the U.S. During First Quarter 1999 (via Q* thread)
BUSINESS WIRE - July 12, 1999 08:18
SAN JOSE, Calif., Jul 12, 1999 (BUSINESS WIRE via COMTEX) -- The U.S.
mobile handset market has begun the transition to code-division multiple access
(CDMA) and is becoming the dominant digital technology in the United States,
according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group, Inc. (NYSE: IT).
CDMA (IS-95) handsets were the No. 1 selling handsets in the United States during the
first quarter of 1999 with sales of 3.2 million units, surpassing the more established
time-division multiple access (TDMA) technology, which accounted for 2.8 million units
in the first quarter. U.S. digital mobile handset sales totaled 7 million units in the first
quarter of 1999. TDMA (IS-136) had been the No. 1 handset technology in 1998 with
8.2 million unit sales, followed by CDMA with 6.8 million units and Global System for
Mobile Communications (GSM) 1900 with 2.9 million units.
"CDMA's inauguration into the top spot of the U.S. handset market should be viewed
as a rather ominous development by handset manufacturers that have aggressive market
share ambitions but do not currently have a CDMA product offering," said Matt
Hoffman, senior industry analyst and program manager for Dataquest's Mobile
Communications Terminal Devices North America program. "We expect CDMA to
maintain its momentum and actually increase the distance between itself and competing
standards in the U.S. marketplace."
Nokia continued to lead the U.S. digital handset market, reaching 32.4 percent market
share in the first quarter of 1999 (see Table 1). Nokia was also the No. 1 vendor in the
segment in 1998, when its market share was 34.5 percent. QUALCOMM was the No.
3 vendor in 1998, but the company moved into the No. 2 position in the first quarter of
this year.
Table 1
U.S. Digital Handset Market Share Estimates by Unit Sales for First
Quarter 1999
Company Q1/99 Market Share (%)
Nokia 32.4
QUALCOMM 14.8
Ericsson 12.7
Motorola 11.2
Audiovox 7.4
Total Market 100.0
Source: Dataquest (July 1999)
"With the United States becoming a home market for CDMA, handset vendors that win
here will have an advantage as the technology spreads to the Latin America and
Asia/Pacific regions," Mr. Hoffman said.
Additional information on this market is available by subscribing to Dataquest's Mobile
Communications Terminal Devices North America program. This program provides
detailed forecasts and actionable analysis of developments in the mobile communications
terminals sector and the fast-changing distribution channels through which they reach the
market. More information on this program is available on Dataquest's Web site at
dataquest.com.
To subscribe to this program, please call 800-419-DATA or 408-468-8009. More
information about Dataquest's programs, descriptions of recent research reports, and
full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at dataquest.com.
GartnerGroup's Dataquest is the recognized leader in providing the high-technology and
financial communities with market intelligence for the semiconductor, computer systems
and peripherals, communications, document management, software, and services
sectors of the global information technology industry.
As the world's leading authority on IT, GartnerGroup provides clients with a wide range
of products and services in the areas of IT advisory services, measurement, research,
decision support, analysis, and consulting. Founded in 1979, with headquarters in
Stamford, Conn., GartnerGroup is at the center of a global community serving Fortune
1000 clients from 80 locations worldwide. Additional information about the company is
available on the Internet at gartner.com.
Copyright (C) 1999 Business Wire. All rights reserved. -0- CONTACT: Dataquest
Tom McCall, 408/468-8312 tom.mccall@gartner.com
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