Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 31 October 2008 21:09
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
IDC has provided a “Regional Analysis” of mobile phone sales around the world. Here’s what they have to say:
- In North America, new releases from Apple, Palm, and Research In Motion, along with the highly anticipated release of the HTC G1, pushed the converged mobile device further into the public eye and into users' hands. Conversely, traditional mobile phones were not able to keep up the pace and showed a slight decline from a year ago. Even so, overall growth in the region remained sound heading into 4Q08.
- In Latin America, the mobile phone market posted slower growth than expected, but the converged mobile device market made terrific strides, especially with the official release of the Apple iPhone in key countries. Although the region is widely known as a key emerging market, that has not stopped carriers and vendors from trying to migrate users to higher-end devices and services.
- The EMEA market posted mixed results, with continued downturn in Western Europe due to economic challenges but still strong growth from the converged mobile device market. In neighboring CEMA, vendors showed no sign yet of a significant slowdown. While the financial crisis had an impact on sales in Russia and Eastern Europe, emerging markets in general have so far proved resilient to a slowdown in the mobile arena, and this is particularly true of Africa, which is benefiting from lower oil and food prices.
- The Asia/Pacific market registered mixed fortunes in 3Q08. Although there were signs of growth in emerging markets like China and Indonesia, other developed markets suffered during the quarter. In particular, the Australia market slumped due to a combination of third-quarter seasonality and weak economic sentiment, while the high-end Korea market experienced a double-digit decrease as dueling operators eased away from an expensive subsidy war.
IDC also has a breakdown on the “top five mobile phone vendors.
Nokia didn’t decrease prices greatly, benefitting from its global leadership position, and expects the E71, N95 and iPhone-clone 5800 XpressMusic “Tube” phone to “gain attention during the holiday quarter”.
Samsung shipped “over fifty million units [in Q3] for the first time in its history”, seeing success in its touch portfolio, posting more than twice the grown of the overall market and making nearly 11% in operating margin, thanks to aggressive pricing and massive marketing.
IDC then says that Sony Ericsson took the number 3 spot worldwide for the “first time in its history”, but suffered a lower “average selling price” while finally launching the “much anticipated XPeria X1”.
What about Motorola and LG – and what are IDC’s figures for market share? Please read on to page 3.
