Nokia Leads Handset Shipments, Market Researchers Say

Market research firms Strategy Analytics (SA) and IDC on Tuesday released surveys suggesting the worldwide mobile handset market grew more than 20 percent in the third quarter compared to the year-ago quarter.

Competition among the top five vendors has become intense, according to the reports with Nokialeading the market.

"Nokia is sacrificing value for volume," said Neil Mawston, associate director of SA's wireless device strategies service, in an interview. "Nokia is slashing prices aggressively."

The strategy seems to be working for Nokia as it recorded a 35 percent global market share in the quarter. Nokia will likely surpass its previous record of 340 million handsets shipped for a full year, Mawston said.

Mawston said the big story in the quarter's numbers is the breakout of Sony Ericsson, which grew at an annual rate of 43 percent. IDC, too, observed the success of Sony Ericsson handsets and added that it had moved into the number four position in shipment rankings passing LG Electronics."The success of Sony Ericsson will ring alarm bells inside Motorola as it indicates not only that the competition is catching up, but that the current phase of 'Razr mania' has peaked," he said, adding that Motorola is preparing to launch several evolutionary models of its successful Razr handsets. The Razr has driven Motorola into the second place position.

IDC said Motorola was preparing to launch RAZR MAXX and RIZR models, and along with the growth of the Q qwerty keyboard device, the new handsets will help Motorola continue on a strong growth path. Mawston said sales of handsets with qwerty keyboards represent less than 5 percent of the entire market. "The are still very niche," he added.

Samsung edged out Sony Ericsson for the third spot in the handset standings, the market research firms said. IDC said Samsung's strong performance could largely be traced to the release of its new "Ultra-Edition" family in Europe as well as its overall recovery in North American markets.

LG Electronics returned to profitability and recorded new shipment records in the quarter largely due to the success of its Chocolate phone, IDC said.

Handset shipments are moving towards reaching the goal of 1 billion units shipped this year, IDC said. Shipments for the third quarter were up 21 percent while SA placed the growth at 22 percent, IDC said.0