facebook rss twitter

Mobile phone market rebounds in Q4

by Scott Bicheno on 29 January 2010, 12:24

Tags: IDC

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qavum

Add to My Vault: x

Back with a bang

Market researcher IDC says the mobile phone market grew by 11.3 percent year-on-year. While this has to be viewed in the context of a bad Q4 2008, it still marks a dramatic return to growth after five consecutive quarters of contraction. The 1.13 billion units shipped in the whole of 2009 were down 5.2 percent on 2008.

The real growth area has been smartphones or, as IDC calls them, converged mobile devices, which look set to continue to drive the market. Additionally, the Americas and Asia/Pac regions seem to have recovered quicker than EMEA.

"Consumer tastes for mobile phones have increasingly shifted from simple voice telephony to greater data usage, and both handset vendors and carriers have been eager to meet demand despite ongoing economic challenges," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst at IDC.

"IDC believes that the converged mobile device market grew nearly 30% year over year, and that the market will continue to gain momentum as device selection increases and price decreases continue into 2010 and beyond."

"Economic recovery mixed with pent-up demand will create positive conditions for handset vendors in both developed and emerging markets in 2010. Meanwhile, key handset vendors expect to exceed their 2009 shipment levels with refreshed portfolios, leveraging interest in touchscreens, messaging devices, and converged mobile devices."

Here's how the top five phone vendors fared in Q4 and over the whole year. As you can see, Sony Ericsson and Motorola lost market share to everyone else, with the Koreans looking especially strong.


Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q4 2009 (Units in Millions)

Vendor

4Q09 Shipment Volumes

4Q09 Market Share

4Q08 Shipment Volumes

4Q08 Market Share

4Q09/4Q08 Growth

1. Nokia

126.9

39.0%

113.1

38.7%

12.2%

2. Samsung

68.8

21.1%

52.8

18.1%

30.3%

3. LG

33.9

10.4%

25.7

8.8%

31.9%

4. Sony Ericsson

14.6

4.5%

24.2

8.3%

-39.7%

5. Motorola

12.0

3.7%

19.2

6.6%

-37.5%

Others

69.1

21.2%

57.4

19.6%

20.4%

Total

325.3

100.0%

292.4

100.0%

11.3%

 

Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, 2009 (Units in Millions)

Vendor

2009 Shipment Volumes

2009 Market Share

2008 Shipment Volumes

2008 Market Share

2009/2008 Growth

1. Nokia

431.8

38.3%

468.4

39.4%

-7.8%

2. Samsung

227.2

20.1%

196.6

16.5%

15.6%

3. LG

117.9

10.5%

100.8

8.5%

17.0%

4. Sony Ericsson

57.1

5.1%

96.6

8.1%

-40.9%

5. Motorola

55.2

4.9%

100.1

8.4%

-44.9%

Others

238.6

21.2%

227.6

19.1%

4.8%

Total

1,127.8

100.0%

1,190.1

100.0%

-5.2%

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, January 28, 2009

Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.

 



HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
Like the fact LG sales are greater than Sony. Time for Sony to actually make something that works and keeps working for over a year, I think Sony will soon be leap frogged by Apple and Htc
Hey hey hey, sony make excellent products (or atleast did - not sure about current products) - I've got 2 phones, K750i purchased on release - gifted to my uncle who i'm sure has tortured the phone (condition shows this) and every aspect of it works. I've had a W810i since release and worked very well - that is until i smashed it into a wall with all my might and broke the screen.
The K750i was Sony's last true good all rounder phone really.

Sony don't have the software development to make their own OS compared to the likes of Google and Apple. They do seem to be having huge reliability issues nowadays.

I think Sony's days in the mobile phone market are numbered for mid to high end. The new W995 is the high end walkman phone and it rubbish. Wife had one shortly and was returned. Wifi barely worked, screen too small, poor build quality.
Exchanged for a Satio - This just simply didn't work, slow, buggy and poor. Exchanged for a Samsung Jet in the end.
ive got a w995 and this is the 2nd time its been sent of for repair…sony need to up there game or there going to really start loosing there share!