More Gartner Dataquest Q1 Handset Market Share ...
Cell phone makers beat expectations by selling 112.7 million phones in the first quarter, with Nokia Corp. strengthening its market leadership, figures from research firm Gartner Inc. showed Monday.
1. Nokia 35.0% 39.5 million units
2. Motorola 14.7% 16.6 million units
3. Samsung 10.5% 11.9 million units
4. Siemens 7.6% 8.6 million units
5. Sony-Ericsson 4.8% 5.4 million units
6. LG Electronics 4.5% 5.1 million units
7. Panasonic 3.4% 3.8 million units
8. NEC 2.6% 2.9 million units
Other 16.9% 19.1 million units
The vendors earlier reported:
Nokia 37.6 million units (sell thru)
Motorola 16.7 million units
Samsung 13.2 million units
Siemens 8.0 million units
LGE 5.6 million units
Sony Ericsson 5.4 million units
The Handset Market Share Game 2002 and Prior Years
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>> Sales of Cell Phones up 18 Percent in First Quarter
Berlin (Dow Jones/AP)
San Jose Mercury News
Jun. 02, 2003
siliconvalley.com
Cell phone makers beat expectations by selling 112.7 million phones in the first quarter, with Nokia Corp. strengthening its market leadership, figures from research firm Gartner Inc. showed Monday.
The results represent an increase of 18 percent from the same quarter last year and were driven by consumers upgrading their cell phones to models that offer color screens or cameras.
``We don't know if this is an anomaly or an ongoing trend for 2003,'' said Ben Wood, principal analyst with the mobile communications group for Gartner in Europe. ``If this does carry on, a market in excess of 470 million units is possible'' in 2003, he said.
Of the top players, Nokia and Samsung Electronics Co. managed to improve their share of the increasingly competitive cell phone market.
Motorola Inc., Siemens AG and SonyEricsson, the venture of Sony Corp. and Telefon AB LM Ericsson, all lost market share in the period.
Nokia, with a first-quarter market share of 35 percent, continued to have more than double the share of its nearest rival. And even with more than 50 percent of almost all global system for mobile communications, or GSM, markets in Europe and Asia, the Finnish manufacturer will grow in these regions during the year, Gartner said.
Nokia sold 39.5 million cell phones in the first quarter, according to Gartner.
Consumers are being drawn by cell phones that can send color photographs, pictures and sound. Vodafone Group PLC, the world's largest wireless operator, said last week that as of the end of March, its customers had activated 413,000 cell phones capable of sending multimedia messages.
``In 2003, an explosion in the availability of color screen and camera phones is expected in mature markets, such as western Europe, and we predict that many customers will be tempted to replace their existing mobile terminals,'' Wood said.
Analysts at AG Edwards & Sons told clients last month that Nokia's new 3650 camera-phone has become one of the firm's best-selling models shortly after its launch.
Nokia's continuing strength leaves Motorola and Samsung battling it out for the number two position. Further down the rankings, SonyEricsson and LG Electronics Inc. are vying for the fifth slot, having both sold more than 5 million cell phones in the first three months, according to Gartner.
South Korean manufacturers Samsung and LG Electronics are solidly entrenched in the code division multiple access, or the CDMA standard used widely in Asia and the United States, and both continue to make inroads into GSM, according to Gartner.
Motorola, plagued by delivery problems last year, has gone from bearing down on Nokia to ``looking over its shoulder at Samsung,'' Wood said. The Schaumburg, Ill., firm sold 16.6 million cell phones, compared with Samsung's 11.9 million, in the first quarter.
Gartner warned that there are several risks that could impact the industry in the second quarter and beyond. The analysts highlighted inventory problems in China and the economic impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in Asia.
Moreover, with more than 100 cell phone manufacturers competing in the market, there's likely to be pressure to lower prices as companies struggle to survive. <<
Nokia Handset Share Dips to 35%
World's No. 1 cell phone maker loses market share, but still well ahead of Motorola, Gartner says.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Reuters
June 2, 2003
The world's largest mobile phone maker Nokia's share of the global handset market fell to 35 percent in the first quarter from 36.2 percent in the fourth quarter, research group Gartner Dataquest said Monday.
The Finnish company, which itself claims a global share of around 38 percent and aims for 40 percent, was still well ahead of second-place Motorola of the U.S., which saw its market share slip to 14.7 percent from 16.9 percent.
Gartner said Nokia is well placed to gain market share this year with new color display, music and camera phones.
No. 3 Samsung Electronics from South Korea, which focuses on the most expensive models, had a 10.5 percent share versus 9.3 percent.
Gartner, which measures actual sales to consumers, said 113 million handsets were sold in the January-to-March period, an increase of 18.2 percent over the year-ago quarter.
The sharp increase, after two years of moderate decline and sluggish growth, was driven by cheaper-than-ever handsets, which still have popular functions such as musical ringtones.
"It's a storming start of the year. Low-end and low-cost phones did well, especially in China and western Europe," said Gartner analyst Ben Wood.
The impact of the deadly SARS virus, which is hurting Chinese business at the moment, was not yet felt in the first quarter but could have an impact on second-quarter sales, Wood added.
"An indication is that handset inventories [in China] have grown to 10 weeks from between four and six weeks at the end of the first quarter," he said.
Competition is increasing with some 100 companies now producing mobile phones, most of which focus on cheap handsets and compete mostly on price. Financial analysts expect average selling prices to drop further this year, by about 5 percent, as a result of more cheap handset sales, offset partly by expensive camera phones.
The other top five players, Germany's Siemens and Japanese-Swedish joint venture Sony Ericsson, lost ground. Siemens slipped to 7.6 percent from 8.2 percent, and Sony Ericsson stayed ahead of South Korea's LG with a 4.8 percent share, down from 5.4 percent.
Strategy Analytics said two weeks ago in market research that LG had pushed Sony Ericsson out of the top five, but main rival Gartner counts only handsets sold to consumers under the LG brand and does not include handsets that LG makes for Chinese companies such as Legend, Bird and Eastcom. LG's market share nevertheless climbed rapidly to 4.5 percent from 3.1 percent in the previous quarter. <<
- Eric - |
