Nokia Oyj and Motorola Inc, the world's largest mobile-phone makers, widened their lead in the third quarter over Samsung Electronics Co as demand in Asia helped increase unit sales by 22 percent.
Nokia's market share rose to 35.1 percent from 32.5 percent a year earlier, Stamford, Connecticut-based researcher Gartner Inc said in a release. Motorola rose to 20.6 percent from 18.7 percent, and Samsung fell to 12.2 percent from 12.5 percent.
As a result of increases for Nokia and Motorola and the growth in Asia, Gartner raised its full-year sales forecast to 986 million units from its previous forecast of 960 million units. Lower-priced phones in Asian countries including China, India, Vietnam, Pakistan and Bangladesh helped sales expand from last year's total of 817 million.
"If you look at where you had the biggest growth, you had Asia grow 54 percent," Carolina Milanesi, principal research analyst at Gartner, said in an interview. Companies paid "more attention to the emerging markets and so having more, cheaper phones on the market is obviously driving sales."
Espoo, Finland-based Nokia increased its market share in every region except North America. The company regained the top spot in Latin America after losing it to Motorola a year ago, Gartner said. Nokia sold 88.1 million units in the quarter.
"Although Nokia has been criticized for lacking in the mid-tier, they still have the widest portfolio," Milanesi said. The companies that made large gains were able to "tap into those regions that are not saturated."
Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola also lost ground in other markets, including Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Gartner said. Motorola sold 51.9 million units.
While Seoul-based Samsung lost market share, the company kept its No. 3 position by increasing sales, though at a slower pace than Nokia and Motorola.
"If you look at the vendors in the third quarter, Samsung was back," Milanesi said. She said Samsung struggled in the first half of the year. She said the 30.6 million units sold by Samsung was a "healthy" sales figure.
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, in fourth place, increased sales and won market share to 7.7 percent from 6.7 percent. In the No. 5 spot was LG Electronics Inc, with a market share falling to 6 percent from 6.5 percent. LG is suffering because it isn't offering enough different phones, Milanesi said.
BenQ Corp (
There are lots of "little things" that will change the mobile industry in the fourth quarter and into next year, Milanesi said. "Definitely there's a change in respect to content playing a bigger role" and the addition of more Internet applications on phones, she said.
In the fourth quarter there will be a "bigger focus" on music, Milanesi said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he