Features

Global Mobile Phone Q2 Sales Slow Down; Motorola Gains Share from Nokia

By Sophia Mayengbam

The global mobile phone market growth in the second-quarter slowed down with an increase in only 18.3 percent sales as compared to 23.8 percent in the first quarter, said Market research group Gartner. Gartner said the slowdown was mainly as a result of mature markets.

Motorola was the top gainer at number 2 as its market share rose to 21.9 percent the highest level in more than five years, from 20.3 percent in the first quarter. Although Nokia maintained its position at number 1 its share fell to 33.6 percent from 34 percent.

Gartner said it had expected the slight slowdown compared to quarter one and that its mobile phone sales forecast is still on track to reach 960 million units in 2006, with 238 million units in the third quarter of 2006.

"While mobile operators in the mature markets of Western Europe and North America struggled to maintain the customer acquisition growth levels seen in previous quarters, but mobile operators in emerging markets continued to sign new customers driving handsets sales," said Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner.

Motorola Gobble Nokia’s Market Share

Motorola gained its market share from Nokia and Samsung, helped by sales of the Razr, Slvr and Ming phones.

Gartner said that Nokia although has been able to maintained its number one position, should be careful when it ships feature-rich phones such as the N72 and N73 in the third quarter of 2006. Gartner said Nokia should ensure that it can also cater for users who put fashion ahead and are looking for thin products.

Motorola maintained its lead in North America and Latin America and its No.2 position in other markets. With the MOTOFONE, KRZR and RIZR mobile phones due to ship from the third quarter of this year, Gartner said Motorola should be able to continue to gain market share in both emerging and mature markets.

Samsung managed to maintained its No.3 postion but lost market share compared to the two top players.

Samsung retained its No. 3 position but lost market share compared to the Lower sales in the home market coupled with weaker than expected demand in some key markets in Asia Pacific explained Samsung’s weaker performance. To grow market share in mature markets such as Western Europe and North America, Gartner said Samsung needs to match its high feature set with a more distinctive design.

Sony Ericsson regained the No.4 position as its bet on music and imaging continued to pay back. LG lost 0.4 percent market share year on year and slipped into fifth place, despite the success of the KG800 Chocolate phone.

Fig. 1: Worldwide Mobile Terminal Sales to End-Users in 2Q06 (Thousands of Units)

* Shipments of BenQ and Siemens combined.