Nokia Oyj and Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s two biggest makers of mobile phones, gained market share in the second quarter as global handset sales rose 12 percent, Gartner Inc said.
Nokia raised its market share by unit sales to 39.5 percent from 36.7 percent a year earlier, the Stamford, Connecticut-based market research company said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Samsung increased its share to 15.2 percent from 13.3 percent. Motorola fell to 10 percent from 14.5 percent and LG Electronics Co increased its share to 8.8 percent from 6.8 percent.
Sales in Western Europe recovered from the first quarter, when they dropped for the first time since at least 2001. Still, consumers in mature markets opted for mid-tier models instead of more expensive ones when replacing phones, Gartner said. Nokia benefited from its dominance in low-cost models and widest range, while Samsung and LG were helped by renewed products.
“The economic environment continued to negatively impact mobile-phones sales in both mature and emerging markets,” Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner, said in the statement. In emerging markets, new subscriptions rose, while replacement sales remained “weak” because of higher fuel and food prices.
Total sales amounted to close to 305 million units. Gartner predicted 11 percent growth for this year as an estimated 1.28 billion units will be sold. In terms of revenue, growth will be 9 percent.
Motorola’s devices lack “hot” applications like navigation and the company may have to cut prices to compete, Gartner said. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd, the fifth-largest vendor, lost share and needs new designs and features, it said.
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