Nokia continues to lead the mobile telephony market , with a 38.6% market share in 2008 according to a study by the consulting firm ABI Research . The Finnish firm maintains its comfortable advantage in this sector, as already happened in the 2007 mobile sales . Comparing the results of both years, we see that Samsung consolidates in second position ( 16.2% ), while LG displaces Motorola from third place , but leaving both firms in technical tie (8.3%) .
| Mobile sales ranking 2008 | Phones sold | Market share | Market share growth 2007-2008 |
| 1- Nokia | 467 million | 38.6% | + 1.8% |
| 2- Samsung | 196 million | 16.2% | + 2.7% |
| 3- LG | 100.4 million | 8.3% | + 1.5% |
| 4- Motorola | 100.4 million | 8.3% | -5.1% |
| 5- Sony Ericsson | 97 million | 8% | -0.7% |
| 6- RIM | 23 million | 1.9% | + 0.9% |
| 7- Kyocera | 17 million | 1.4% | ??? |
| 8- Apple | 13.3 million | 1.1% | + 0.8% |
| 9- HTC | 13.3 million | 1.1% | ??? |
| 10- Sharp | 12 millions | one% | ??? |
| Rest | 170.6 | 14.1% | ??? |
| Total | 1210 million | 100% | - |
It should be clarified that these data cover the twelve months of 2008 . Hence the fluctuations with respect to the data that we provided you last year, corresponding only to the last quarter of 2007 . At that time, Nokia exceeded 40% , which has dropped to 37% during the last three months of 2008 , as we told you when talking about the measures that several technology companies are taking to alleviate the crisis . But when comparing 2007 and 2008 together, the Finns have taken 1.8% more of the pie .
This situation is somewhat parallel to what we told you a few minutes ago about the mobile market in general : sales have risen 5.4% in 2008 , representing a total of 1,210 million phones, compared to 1,130 million 2007 . But in the third quarter, sales were down 10% . In the same way, Nokia has sold 467 million phones in 2008 , when in 2007 it was 456.5 million . But comparing the last quarters of both years, sales have fallen from 133.5 million in 2007 to 113.1 million for the Finnish company.
Samsung , for its part, is the firm that has grown the most in 2008 , with an increase of 2.7% in its market share . In other words, it has gone from the 152.5 million phones it sold throughout 2007 to the 196 million achieved throughout 2008 . Already in mid-2007 the Koreans overtook Motorola , and the good performance in the sales of handsets such as the Omnia and the Ultra slim family of phones has been gaining ground. Above all, because Motorola (8.3%) continues without raising its head .
The US firm is in a deep crisis , and has not yet found a solution for its mobile subsidiary . In practice, Motorola is the firm that has fallen the most, losing 5.1% of its market share and selling 50 million fewer phones than in 2007 (from 151.4 million to 100.4 million). Motorola has dropped so much that it has even been overtaken by another Korean firm: LG , which rises from fifth to third position , as it has also overtaken Sony Ericsson (8%) .
According to the study, much of LG's rise (it has gained 1.5% market share in 2008, selling 23.5 million more phones than in 2007 ) is due to the good situation in the United States , where it is also the third best-selling firm . For its part, Sony Ericsson has had a year of stagnation. Its number of telephones sold has suffered a slight decrease (1.3 million terminals less than in 2007) , but as the market has grown in general lines, it has yielded a 0.7% share.
The rest of the firms are already around 1%. The study highlights the growth experienced by two firms that are exclusively dedicated to manufacturing smartphones or smart phones : RIM (which rises from 1% to 1.9% , representing 23 million BlackBerrys sold in 2008) and Apple (the 13 , 3 million iPhones sold in 2008 mean a step from 0.3% to 1.1% share).
On the other hand, the study does not provide the evolution of HTC , another manufacturer specialized in this type of professional phones, especially touch screen, which has achieved results very similar to those of Apple.
However, these firms are still rubbing shoulders with manufacturers such as Kyocera (1.4%) or Sharp (1%) , which manufacture mobile phones of all kinds but only for the Japanese market . The weight of RIM and Apple in the market is quite small, but it is significant that both have doubled and quadrupled their market share , respectively. And if you look at the total sale of smartphone s , which also include those of Nokia , Samsung and other companies, the figure is 171 million smartphones sold during 2008, which represents 14.1% of the entire mobile market .
Perhaps it is a bit risky to say that 2009 will be "the year of the smartphone" , as the authors of the study affirm. But in a context in which sales will continue to decline, it is noteworthy that these types of terminals are precisely the only ones that will continue to grow , according to forecasts. They are much more expensive than a conventional mobile, but they are usually linked to financing contracts and, in addition, the arrival of touch screens has caused that it is no longer only the executives of multinationals who are interested in them.
Today, the economic context allows doubts to be cast on any prediction of the future of a market. But taking into account the latest bets of manufacturers, it is a phenomenon whose evolution should be monitored during 2009 . This same year, new terminals as interesting as the Nokia N97 will arrive , and firms such as Palm want to end their crisis with terminals that follow the new philosophy of the touch smartphone ( Palm Pre ). And last but not least, both Acer and Dell plan to join the party. When the river sounds…
Via: elpaís.com / ParaSaber.com
