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Gartner: LG overtakes Sony Ericsson in global handset market share

Categories: Research
By: , IntoMobile
Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 4:23 AM

According to Gartner, Sony Ericsson slipped to fifth place in global mobile phone market share during the first-quarter of 2008, overtaken by Korean vendor LG.

GartnerSony Ericsson sold 22.1 million units in the quarter for a 7.5% market share, behind LG’s total sales of 23.6 million units and 8% share. The Swedish-Japanese company previously warned that it was experiencing weakened demand in the European mid-to-high-end device market.

On the other hand, Nokia continued its dominance in the first-quarter, growing its market share to 39.1% on sales of 115.2 million units, up from 35.5% share in the same period last year. Samsung was in second position, increasing its share from 12.4% to 14.4% on sales of 42.4 million units, whilst Motorola’s troubles continued. The US handset maker saw a sharp drop in the quarter, selling 29.9 million units to give it a market share of 10.2%, compared to 18.4% last year.

Gartner forecasts worldwide mobile phone sales will continue to rise between 10 and 15 percent in 2008. Emerging markets will drive the growth, but the value of the market will be lower than expected. The analyst firm added that West European mobile phone sales fell 16.4% in the first-quarter compared with the year-earlier period. Worldwide sales, however, reached 294.3 million units in the first quarter, a 13.6% increase from sales last year.

[Via: CNN]

About The Author

Dusan Belic

Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.