Motorola Gained On Nokia In Q2, Analyst Says

SAN FRANCISCO — Motorola Inc. continued its recent run of success during the second quarter, increasing shipments of mobile phones by an industry-leading 5.8 million units, according to market analyst iSuppli Corp.

Motorola's mobile-phone shipments amounted to 51.9 million units in the second quarter, up 12.6 percent from 46.1 million in the first quarter, iSuppli (El Segundo, Calif.) said Wednesday (Aug. 9). The company's market share rose to 23 percent from 21 percent during the period, according to iSuppli.

"U.S.-based Motorola continues to benefit from strong demand for its line of thin form-factor phones, most notably its wildly successful Razr," said Tina Teng, wireless communications analyst at iSuppli. "About 40 percent of Motorola's second-quarter unit shipments were of its trademark thin form-factor phones, and 32.8 percent were Razrs. Motorola's market-share gains were most notable in China, North America and India."

Despite the 2 percent gain in market share, Motorola continues to trail market leader Nokia Corp. by a sizeable margin. Nokia achieved 4.4 percent sequential growth in mobile phone shipments in the second quarter, slightly better than that of the overall market. The Finnish firm increased its market share by 1 percentage point to 35 percent during the quarter. Nokia's shipments amounted to 78.4 million units in the second quarter, up from 75.1 million in the first quarter, iSuppli said.

iSuppli attributed Nokia's second quarter success to improvements in its mobile-phone product portfolio and rising sales in Europe, China and the Asia/Pacific countries.South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. suffered a significant setback in the second quarter, iSuppli said, due to disappointing overseas sales, particularly in Europe. Samsung's phone shipments ere down 9.3 percent in the second quarter, the firm said, and Samsung lost one percentage point in market share, decreasing to 12 percent.

The average selling price of Samsung mobile phones did improve by 1.5 percent as the company concentrated more on the premium segment and avoided low-end products for emerging regions, iSuppli said.

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB posted the largest percentage increase in mobile-phone shipments among the top-five players, iSuppli said, with units rising to 15.8 million in the second quarter, up 18.8 percent from 13.3 million in the first quarter. The company increased its market share 1 percentage point to 7 percent during the quarter, according to iSuppli.

Sony Ericsson passed South Korea's LG Electronics to move into fourth place among mobile phone suppliers during the quarter, iSuppli said.

LG's mobile phone shipments declined 1.9 percent during the quarter, iSuppli said. The firm cited competition in the U.S. market with rival Motorola. iSuppli suggested that LG's highly touted new product, Chocolate, should help boost the company's near-term results as it becomes available in the U.S. in coming months. See related image