By Aaron Back, Dow Jones Newswires
Tuesday 03 May 2011
Snartphone sales will drive market through 2015, analyst firm says.
The global market for mobile phones grew 19.8% from a year earlier in the first quarter, according to estimates by research firm IDC, driven by growth in high-end smartphones, especially in emerging markets.
"Increasingly, mobile phone makers and carriers are making smartphones affordable to a wider variety of people, which has helped drive the market to new heights," IDC said in a statement on Friday.
IDC said it expects mobile phone sales growth to be driven almost entirely by smartphone sales through 2015.
Click here to find out more!Nokia Corp. remained the top mobile phone vendor in the world by shipment volume, but its market share slipped considerably in the first quarter to 29.2% from 34.7% a year earlier.
Korean vendors Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. were second and third. Samsung's market share fell to 18.8% from 20.7% a year earlier, while LG's fell to 6.6% from 8.7%.
Apple Inc. and China's ZTE Corp. came in fourth and fifth, with 5.0% and 4.1% market share respectively.
Total mobile phone shipments in the first quarter came to 371.8 million units in the first quarter, compared to 310.5 million a year earlier.
http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=464422
=========================
By Se Young Lee, Dow Jones Newswires
Tuesday 03 May 2011
Smartphone uptake in developed markets and multiple SIM ownership in emerging economies boost global mobile phone figures.
Global handset shipments rose by 17.3% from a year earlier to 350.1 million units in the first quarter despite supply-chain disruptions caused by the earthquake in Japan last month, research firm Strategy Analytics said Friday.
The research firm said in a statement that shipment growth was driven by a surge in demand for smartphones in developed markets as well as multi-SIM card mobile phones in emerging markets. It added that 2011 will be the first year in which shipments will exceed 300 million units every quarter.
However, the research firm said handset makers saw "mild component constraints" during the first quarter in the wake of the March 11 Japan earthquake, citing parts like touchscreens, memory chips and cameras.
Click here to find out more!"We expect the global industry's select component shortages to continue for at least the next six to nine months, causing restricted volumes or rising input prices for some handset makers," Strategy Analytics said. "But at this stage, on the whole, the operational challenges posed by these parts constraints remain minor rather than major for most players."
Nokia Corp. retained its position as the market leader, but its market share declined to 31% in the first quarter from 36.1% a year earlier. It shipped 108.5 million handsets in the three months ended March 31, up from 107.8 million units a year earlier.
Samsung Electronics Co.'s handset shipments rose to 68.9 million from 64.3 million units over the same period, but its market share fell to 19.7% from 21.5%. Strategy Analytics said the shipment growth for Samsung for the period was below average and that its market share suffered due to rising competition, but noted that one out of every six phones shipped by the Korean electronics giant during the quarter was a smartphone.
LG Electronics Inc. saw its market share decline to 7.0% from 9.1%, as its first-quarter shipments fell to 24.5 million units from 27.1 million a year earlier. LG suffered from sluggish demand for its second-generation feature phones, which have less computing ability than smartphones and run on a slower wireless network, Strategy Analytics said.
Apple Inc. overtook ZTE Corp. to become the fourth-largest handset maker by market share, shipping 18.6 million units in the first quarter--the most it has ever sold in a quarter--compared with 8.8 million units a year earlier. Apple's market share stood at 5.3% at the end of March, compared with 2.9% a year earlier, and Strategy Analytics said the U.S. company was the world's largest handset vendor by revenue during the quarter.
ZTE shipped 15.2 million handsets in the first quarter, up from 8.6 million a year earlier, while its market share rose to 4.3% from 2.9%. The China-based firm is looking to gain a foothold in the Android platform smartphone market, Strategy Analytics said, posing a new threat to rival handset makers.
http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=464407&G=1&C=1&Page=0
| 