Nokia Still Leading but Sony Ericsson Wowing Handset Market

Nokia expanded its leadership position in the mobile handset market in 2006, shipping more units than its next two closest competitors combined, according to iSuppli. However, the biggest waves in the market in 2006 were made by Sony Ericsson, which in the fourth quarter posted the largest quarter-over-quarter growth of all mobile-phone makers, with shipments rising 61.5% to 26 million units, up from 16.1 million units during the same period in 2005.

The joint venture between consumer electronics giant Sony Corp. and telecommunications specialist Ericsson enjoyed a great 2006, achieving more than 15 percent growth in the second, third and fourth quarters of 2006.

"Sony Ericsson is targeting its entire product line at the mid-to-high range of the market and just recently has started entering the emerging low-cost handset market," said Tina Teng, wireless communications analyst at iSuppli. "This has contributed to the company's accelerated growth in 2006. Plus, Sony Ericsson's products appeal to every regional market globally, because its camera- and music-enabled phones hit the sweet spot in terms of desirable handset features."

Sony Ericsson's shipments increased to 74.8 million units in 2006, up 46.4 percent from 51.1 million units in 2005.

Nokia stays on top

Nokia, for its part, is still the No. 1 handset OEM by a wide margin, with unit shipments of 348 million in 2006. This compares to combined shipments of 335.3 million units for Nokia's two closest competitors, Motorola and Samsung. The company also shipped a staggering 106 million units in the fourth quarter of 2006, up from 83.7 million during the same period a year earlier.

Nokia's highest growth and volume is coming from Europe, which accounted for nearly 32 percent of Nokia's shipments in the fourth quarter. The figure below and attached presents iSuppli's unit-shipment ranking for the Top-5 mobile handset manufacturers in 2005 and 2006.

The RAZR effect

Motorola's mobile handset shipments picked up speed in 2006. Despite missing its own fourth-quarter target, Motorola still managed to ship 65.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2006, up 22.3 percent from 44.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2005.

However, it is in the yearly total where Motorola truly excelled, growing a whopping 48.6 percent to 217.4 million units in 2006, up from 146 million units in 2005. The company's marketing campaign for its RAZR phone was the main reason behind the surge.

"The success of the RAZR handset pushed the whole industry to go thin," Teng said. "Now virtually all of the upper-echelon phone OEMs have super-slim handset models."

Motorola also introduced the first phone equipped with an Electrophoretic Display (EPD) to the emerging low-cost market in late 2006. However, the display used didn't allow consumers to enter many words or characters into the phone, which is required in certain emerging market regions specifically India and China, according to Teng.

Troubles at home for Korean OEMs

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics both suffered sales declines in Asia, leading to inventory buildups that the companies must deal with in the first quarter of 2007. These issues caused LG to drop one rank to fifth place in 2006, down from fourth in 2005. Unit shipments from the South Korean handset OEM rose to 64.4 million units in 2006, up 17.4 percent from 54.9 million units in 2005.

LG also posted a flat fourth quarter, with shipments of 17 million units, up just barely from the 16.2 million units the company shipped in the fourth quarter of 2005. However, LG is hoping that the popularity of its Chocolate line of mobile handsets and the U.S. debut of Shine, the follow-up to Chocolate, will help it regain its fourth-place position.

Samsung now must watch its back because Sony Ericsson is gaining on it. In the fourth quarter of 2006, Sony Ericsson was only 5.9 million units shy of Samsung's fourth-quarter unit total of 31.9 million units. Samsung ended 2006 in the No. 3 position with 117.9 million units, growing 14.6 percent from its 2005 total of 102.9 million units."

Posted to the site on 30th January 2007