Worldwide sales of mobile phones reached close to 305 million units in the second quarter of 2008, a 11.8 percent increase over the second quarter of 2007, according to Gartner, Inc.


“The economic environment continued to negatively impact mobile phones sales in both mature and emerging markets,” said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner, based in Egham, UK. “Consumers in mature markets continued to favour mid-tier devices over high-end devices, while new subscribers continued to join mobile networks in emerging markets during the quarter. However, replacement sales remained weak, as consumers faced higher prices for fuel and food in addition to higher levels of inflation. Despite this, we remain positive that mobile phone sales in 2008 will reach 1.28 billion units.”

Nokia sold 120.4 million mobile phones in the second quarter of 2008 and widened its lead to control 39.5 percent of the global mobile phones market . Nokia applied strategic price cuts in its mid-tier portfolio, which put pressure on competitors such as Sony Ericsson and LG.,



Samsung’s mobile phones sales into the channel reached 45.7 million units. Samsung’s strong performance this quarter helped widen its lead over third-placed Motorola. “We expect Samsung's sales to remain strong in the second half of 2008 as new products such as the Omnia pick up momentum,” said Ms Milanesi.


With mobile phone sales reaching 30.4 million units, Motorola’s worldwide market share dropped further in the second quarter of 2008 at -4.5 percent year-on-year. Nevertheless, sales grew quarter-on-quarter and reached 30.4 million units.

Motorola’s portfolio remained uncompetitive because of its lack of 3G and “hot” applications such as GPS and good-quality internet browsing.


LG’s positive momentum continued in the second quarter of 2008, with mobile phones sales amounting to 26.7 million units. This represented a 2 percentage-point increase year-on-year.


Sony Ericsson’s market share grew slightly in the second quarter of 2008 sequentially with worldwide mobile phone sales reaching close to 23 million units.

In the second quarter of 2008, 115 million mobile handsets were sold in Asia/Pacific. This represented a 20.5 percent increase over the second quarter of 2007. “Net new cellular connections declined significantly. Operators added more than 83 million connections in the first quarter of 2008, but they added only 75 million in the second quarter of 2008. This drop negatively impacted sales of mobile devices in the second quarter of 2008,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst for mobile terminals at Gartner, based in Mumbai, India. “In addition, high food prices and inflation also had a negative impact on sales of replacement mobile handsets.” Sales in emerging markets bolstered the overall growth in the region as the growth in mature markets remained flat.

 

Shalini Ale/ITvoir Network