Mobile phone shipments show signs of improvement in Q3

The mobile phone market globally turned a corner in the third quarter, with shipments by manufacturers increasing by 5.6 per cent over the previous quarter, market research firm IDC reported.

The results for the third quarter were still down by six per cent from the same quarter in 2008, but the quarter-to-quarter growth was taken as the first sign of improvement since the onset of the economic downturn, the analyst firm said Thursday.

In all, 287.1 million cell phones and smartphones were shipped in the third quarter, down six per cent from the 305.4 million shipped in the third quarter of 2008. Shipments do not necessarily result in sales to end user customers, but indicate that carriers and other retailers are expecting to make sales by ordering from manufacturers.

In the third quarter, various sales channels promoted older devices at lower prices, creating demand that pushed up shipment volumes, said Ramon Llamas, an IDC analyst. Now that we have moved into the fourth quarter, vendors are setting the stage for further gains by launching their flagship devices to meet pent-up demand, he said.

New smartphones, such as the Droid and the Cliq from Motorola which are both based on the Android operating system, are appearing in November in the U.S., for example, IDC noted.

Will Stofega, another IDC analyst, said that the economy is expected to make a slower recovery than many predicted a year ago, but mobile phone manufacturers should still increase their spending on research and development to stay competitive.

IDC assessed market performance in various geographies, noting that North America posted mixed results, with the U.S. showing gains in the quarter, but with Canada declining for the third straight quarter for all mobile phones, even as smartphone shipments increased. Western Europe showed strong signs of recovery, with increases in all devices year-over-year. IDC did not provide specific numbers for various geographies, however.

Market leader Nokia once again led for all types of mobile phone shipments, with 108.5 million shipped, a decline of eight per cent over third quarter 2008. The Finnish company took 37.8 per cent share of the market.

Samsung finished second with 21 per cent market share; LG Electronics finished third with 11 per cent; Sony Ericsson was fourth with 4.9 per cent; and Motorola was fifth with four per cent. All other manufacturers combined to account for 59 million mobile phones shipped, or 20.6 per cent of the market.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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