Nokia holds on to top spot as the demand for mobiles grows
Despite a cooling global economy, the demand for mobile phones seems undiminished. A recent report by consultancy firm Strategy Analytics says 282 million handsets were shipped worldwide in the first three months of 2008, up 14% from a year ago. The growth was driven by rising demand in emerging markets such as Africa and Asia.
Although Nokia maintained its dominant position with a 40.9% market share, it lost some share as shipments of LG and Samsung phones grew faster than Nokia’s sales. Meanwhile, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Apple lost market share. Motorola has been losing ground for some time. LG has made the most progress recently.
Here are the figures:
Nokia 40.9%
Samsung 16.4%
Motorola 9.7%
LG Electronics 8.6%
Sony Ericsson 7.9%
Others 16.4%
It seems that food prices in developing countries and the financial crisis affecting richer countries has so far had limited impact on demand for mobile handsets. In fact, Strategy Analytics forecasts demand will continue to rise, but at a slightly slower rate. It predicts 290 million handsets will be sold in the second quarter of this year, up 12% from the same period a year earlier.
