News

4 May 2009

 

Handset shipments fall at record rate in Q1/2009

Global mobile handset shipments fell a huge 13% from 282 million units a year ago to 245 million units in first-quarter 2009, according to the report ‘Q1 2009 Global Handset Market Share Update’ from market research firm Strategy Analytics.

Analyst Alex Spektor attributes the fastest ever year-on-year decline in handset shipments since the modern cellphone industry began 27 years ago (in 1983) to the worldwide economic downturn and de-stocking by cautious retailers, as well as consumers delaying purchases because of financial fears.

Mobile handset shipments and market share - top 5

Company	Shipments (millions of units)
	Q1/08	2008	Q1/09
Nokia	115.5	468.4	93.2
Samsung	46.3	196.6	45.8
LG Electronics	24.4	100.8	22.6
Motorola	27.4	100.1	14.7
Sony Ericsson	22.3	96.6	14.5
Others	46.5	214.8	53.7
Total	282.4	1177.3	244.5
Company	Global market share %
	Q1/08	2008	Q1/09
Nokia	40.9%	39.8%	38.1%
Samsung	16.4%	16.7%	18.7%
LG Electronics	8.6%	8.6%	9.2%
Motorola	9.7%	8.5%	6.0%
Sony Ericsson	7.9%	8.2%	5.9%
Others	16.5%	18.2%	22.0%
Total growth year-on-year	14.3%	4.9%	-13.4%

“The first quarter of 2009 was an exceptionally tough period,” says Strategy Analytics director Neil Mawston. “Shipment growth contracted for all the top five major vendors, forcing some of them, such as Nokia, to rein in costs and slash thousands of jobs,” he adds.

“However, one bright spot was found among the smart-phone specialists,” Mawston notes. “Apple, for example, more than doubled its volumes year-over-year due to healthy demand for its wildly popular 3G iPhone.”

Other findings of the report for Q1/2009 include:

• Samsung was again the top performer among the big five vendors, as its shipments fell only 1% and its market share hit a record 19%. Its success has been driven by an attractive portfolio of handsets for the high-growth touchscreen and QWERTY messaging markets;

• Apple shipped a better-than-expected 3.8 million iPhones (up a healthy 123% from 1.7 million units a year ago). This exceeded those of one of its main touchscreen rivals, the Nokia 5800, which recorded slightly lower volumes of 2.6 million units.

See related items:

Mobile phone shipments to fall 8.3% in 2009

Cell-phone shipments fall 10% in Q4/2008

Handset market grows just 7% in 2008, but 3G+, smartphones and cellular modems to keep market ticking over in '09

Search: Handset shipments

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