Nokia - Nokia, Motorola Gain More Market Share

Nokia, Motorola Gain More Market Share
Thursday August 25, 11:31 am ET By Matt Moore, AP Business Writer
Nokia, Motorola Gain More Market Share As Global Sales of Mobile Phones Increases
LONDON (AP) -- Global sales of new mobile phones increased 22 percent to 190.5 million handsets during the second quarter, with Nokia Corp. increasing its market-leading share, research firm Gartner Inc. said Thursday.
"All the regions recorded growth this quarter, apart from Japan," compared to the second quarter in 2004, said Carolina Milanesi, a Gartner analyst in Egham, England.
Western European sales rose 9.9 percent to 37.4 million handsets, while North American sales rose 9.4 percent to 35.5 million. In Latin America, sales increased 50 percent to 25.6 million, led by improved sales in Brazil and Mexico.
Nokia saw its market share rise to 31.9 percent during the quarter, compared with 29.6 percent a year earlier, as consumers snapped the Finnish company's mid- to high-end models equipped with cameras and audio players.
Motorola Inc. improved on its second-place market share, rising to 17.9 percent from 15.7 percent, amid strong demand for its stylish, super-thin Razr model.
The company, based in Schaumburg, Ill., strengthened its presence in Europe to become the No. 2 vendor there, up from No. 5 last year. It remained atop the North American market, followed by Samsung Corp. and Nokia.
Rounding out the top five globally were South Korea's Samsung and LG Electronics Inc., with 12.8 percent and 6.5 percent of the market, up from 12.1 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively.
London-based Sony Ericsson, a joint venture between LM Ericsson of Sweden and Japan's Sony Corp., posted a 6.2 percent share, down slightly from 6.6 percent a year ago.
Germany's Siemens AG saw its market share drop to 4.7 percent from 6.9 percent. Siemens is selling its handset unit to Taiwan's BenQ Corp., which will use the brand name for five years.
In Japan, sales fell to 10 million handsets compared with 10.6 million in the second quarter of 2004.
But elsewhere in Asia, sales of phones rose 27.5 percent to reach 48.3 million units.
"The healthy performance was mainly due to strong demand for handsets in emerging markets such as China, India, Bangladesh and Vietnam," said Ann Liang, a Gartner analyst based in Taiwan.