Analyst: Handset shipments down 13% in Q1

John Walko
EE Times Europe
05/01/2009 10:19 AM

LONDON — The mobile phones sector suffered one of its worst ever performances in terms of units shipped in the first quarter, with the number of handsets sold, 245 million, down 13 percent from the 282 million units a year earlier.

Market watcher Strategy Analytics (Milton Keynes, England) forecasts 266 million units in Q2 2009, for an annual decline of 10 percent.

"We expect the remainder of the first half of 2009 to be volatile, as prevailing economic conditions continue to affect consumer spending behavior. Handset industry growth rates should improve gradually in the second half of 2009, as retailers rebuild their inventories with compelling new models and consumers slowly regain confidence in their financial position," said Neil Mawston, who tracks the sector at the market research group.

Strategy Analytics says all the top five handset vendors grew at negative rates. Samsung performed best, slipping only 1 percent annually, while grabbing a record 19 percent global share. Nokia, Sony Ericsson , LG and Motorola continued to disappoint, prompting workforce reductions from three, the exception being LG.

Apple is said to have shipped a better-than-expected 3.8 million iPhones worldwide during the quarter, up 123 percent from 1.7 million units a year earlier. Its global market share hit 2 percent, placing it in seventh position. Mawston says the increased global availability of the iPhone and a quickly-expanding iTunes App Store library drove the growth.

Apple's 3.8 million iPhone shipments exceeded those of one of its main touchscreen rivals, the Nokia 5800, which recorded slightly lower global volumes of 2.6 million units during the quarter. 'We expect Apple to launch one or more new models in the coming months as it seeks to maintain its breakneck growth rate," said Strategy Analytics.

Nokia shipped 93.2 million handsets worldwide in Q1 2009, down 19 percent from the corresponding quarter of 2008. The Finnish group's global market share at 38 percent slipped three points and its growth rate underperformed the industry average for the third quarter in a row.

Samsung easily held on to second spot, shipping 45.8 million handsets worldwide in Q1 2009, down 1 percent from 46.3 million units a year earlier and 13 percent from last quarter's 52.8 million. Even with the decline, Samsung was the top-performing 'megavendor', beating the industry's average growth rate and increasing the company’s global marketshare to an all-time high of 19 percent.

Motorola shipped 14.7 million handsets worldwide in Q1 2009, down a huge 46 percent annually. Its operating loss reached a hefty $0.5 billion.

Sony Ericsson, in fifth slot, sold 14.5 million handsets worldwide in Q1 2009, falling a huge 40 percent from 24.2 million units in Q4 2008.