The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
Kevin Burden, practice director for mobile devices at ABI Research
noted that the biggest players Samsung (+2.7%), Nokia (+1.8%) and LG (
+1.5%) all gained market share in 2008. However, Nokia's share declined
in the second half and the decline accelerated in 4Q.
“While those three manufacturers dominate the global market, it
probably would not come as a surprise to many that RIM (Blackberry) and
Apple (iPhone) boldly moved up in the market-share stakes with growths
of 0.9% and 0.8% respectively,” said Burden
According to ABI Research, despite the tough economic climate, RIM and
Apple are likely to continue their march to the consumer centre-stage
but it in a way that does not drop their handset ASPs to bargain
basement levels. HTC was late entering the consumer smartphone market
with the Android-based G1, but the vendor has significant contracts in
place (such as T-Mobile) which should play to the its advantage in 2009.
The biggest loser in 2008 was Motorola with –5.1% drop in market share
in 2008 (8.3%). Little consolation that this was an improvement on 2007
in which the firm suffered a –7.8% drop.
Although quite as dramatic, Sony-Ericsson also stumbled in the mid part of 2008 with a -0.7% contraction in market-share.
The outlook for 2009, according to ABI Research is anything but rosy.
However, it should come us welcome news for the likes of RIM and Apple.
"Sharp revisions to country-by-country economic conditions in the space
of just three months will likely mean that a YoY handset shipment
contraction of between -5% and -10% is becoming a distinct
possibility," said ABI's Saunders.
"What is certain is that handset vendors will be trying to convince
everyone they should own a smartphone. Welcome to the Year of
Smartphone."
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