Analyst Ittai Kidron at CIBC says that the South Korean handset manufacturer, Samsung, may be making another move to take the number two handset manufacturing spot from Motorola. We’re not surprised to hear that Motorola is losing global market share – what with all of Moto’s recent financial woes and setbacks. According to Strategy Analytics, the company’s 22% market share in 2006 was enough to make it the second largest handset manufacturer, behind Nokia, in the world. But, it looks like Samsung, with an 11.8% market share in 2006, has been creeping up on the once-giant Motorola.
Kidron expects a 12% decline in handset shipments from Motorola between Q1 and Q2 of this year – projecting an optimistic 40 million units in Q2 2007. On the flip side, Samsung is projected to increase shipments of handhelds (mostly in emerging markets with low-tier handsets) by 9% from Q1 to Q2 – with a conservative estimate of 38 million units shipped out this in Q2.
How could Motorola be in this position, especially with all those recent product announcements? While Samsung might overtake Motorola in Q2 of this year, we think Moto is just biding its time as it shores up its high-margin offerings and emerging market investments for later this year.
[Via: RCRNews]