Nokia Retains Lead as Mobile-Phone Sales Soar (NewsFactor)

Worldwide sales of mobile phones skyrocketed to 1.5 billion in 2007, according to research firm Gartner, a 16 percent increase from 2006 sales of 990.9 million. Sales at the end of the year matched a trend that has demand spiking in the fourth quarter. Fourth-quarter sales reached 330 million.

"Emerging markets, especially China and India, provided much of the growth as many people bought their first phone," said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner. "In mature markets, such as Japan and Western Europe, consumers appetite for feature-laden phones was met with new models packed with TV tuners, global positioning satellite functions, touch screens and high-resolution cameras."

NOKIA IS THE GLOBAL LEADER

Nokia continues its global leadership with a 40 percent market share in the fourth quarter, when it sold slightly more than 133 million phones. Samsung maintained second place and, although its market share slipped slightly, the gap widened between Samsung and third-place Motorola.

The problems that beset Motorola in the third quarter continued in the fourth quarter. The company recorded global sales of 39 million for the quarter, taking 11.9 percent of the market.

Motorola retained second place in annual sales, Gartner reported, largely thanks to the inventory it disposed of in the first half of the year. Nevertheless, the extent of Motorolas troubles can be seen in the 9.7 percent drop in its market share in the fourth quarter from the same period in 2006.

Sony Ericsson ended 2007 with another positive performance, growing its market share on a quarterly basis to nine percent from 8.7 percent. And LGs mobile-phone sales totaled 23.5 million in the fourth quarter, maintaining its 7.1 percent market share despite a sales increase of more than 3 million..

THE ONES TO WATCH

The market saw three new players in the top 10 for the fourth quarter -- Research In Motion, ZTE and Apple. Analyst Avi Greengart said along with the new entrants, HTC, Kyocera and Sanyo are the ones to watch. Sanyo and Kyocera are vying for market share as a joint company and are expected to make a push, while HTC is pushing its own brand rather than manufacturing strictly for OEMs.

"HTC is branching out away from just being a Windows Mobile company and is taking on the mantle of Google Android as well. In some ways its actually a dangerous move for them," Greengart said. "Right now theres a lot of interest in Google Android, but if it doesnt prove to be very popular, it could end up being a distraction for them. They are doing well in the Windows Mobile market and diversifying away from that has its pros and cons."

PREDICTIONS FOR 2008

Gartner expects the sales growth will decelerate in 2008 and fall to about 10 percent as mature markets become more saturated.

However, the global mobile-device market will remain relatively immune to a recession in the U.S. and Western Europe, as the majority of growth in 2008 will come from emerging markets.

"The mature Western Europe and North America markets are driven by operator contract terms and replacement cycles and will account for just 30 percent of the global mobile-devices market in 2008," Milanesi said.