03/19 11:37 Everen poll suggests Nokia gaining on Ericsson
CHICAGO, March 19 (Reuters) - Everen Securities Inc. said Friday that its
latest quarterly survey of 175 digital phone retailers suggested that Oy Nokia
Ab <NOKa.N> <NOKAV.HE> of Finland may be gaining on rival Telefon AB
L.M. Ericsson <LMEb.ST> of Sweden in the battle for market share in the
lucrative digital phone industry.
Although a Qualcomm Inc. <QCOM.O> model was the most recommended
phone in the survey, Everen said that Motorola Inc.'s <MOT.N> market share
may be starting to improve.
Everen collected more than 175 recommendations from randomly selected
retailers in 25 cities for its quarterly survey, the investment bank said in a
research note.
"We were surprised to find that Qualcomm Inc. model QCP2700 was the
most recommended phone by retailers for the second quarter in a row, and
that the number of retailers recommending the QCP2700 increased," Everen
said.
Everen said Qualcomm may have garnered a higher number of
recommendations because of the extensive retail distribution network of
wireless service providers Sprint PCS <PCS.N> and Primeco, which use
Qualcomm phones.
"We would also predict that Ericsson may be continuing to lose market
share to Nokia in the first quarter of 1999, and that Motorola's market share
may be starting to improve based on an acceleration of recommendations for
Motorola's StarTac 6500 CDMA digital handset," Everen said.
The second through sixth most recommended phones were all made by
Nokia. Everen maintained its intermediate- and long-term outperform ratings
on Qualcomm.
"We continue to rate Motorola an intermediate-term market performer and a
long-term outperform because of our concerns about operating margin
expectations being too high and potential negative impact from weak demand
at Iridium (World Communications Ltd. <IRID.O>), however, cellular products
revenues may be doing better than expected," Everen said.
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