According to a survey by Dataquest, mobile phone sales fell 3.2%
last year, the first-ever decline in an industry that saw a
compound annual growth rate of close to 60% between 1996 and
2000.
Nearly 399.6 million mobile phones were sold in 2001, compared with
over 412.7 million in 2000, the survey said.
Handset makers faced a tougher market, especially in Europe and
Latin America, as mobile phone operators cut subsidies on handsets
and started selling subscriptions and prepaid service without
phones, fuelling the market for used handsets. Leftover inventory
from the last quarter of 2000 also cut into handset sales in key
markets, Dataquest said.
The economic slump and the promise of new high-speed mobile data
services, which require special handsets, led buyers to postpone
handset replacement plans.
High growth rates in the mobile-phone market will not return as
quickly as they disappeared, with grim prospects for the first half
of 2002. Colour screens on mobile phones may be a catalyst for
replacement sales in the latter half of the year, according to
Dataquest.
Market leader Nokia managed to extend its market share and sell
10.5% more phones than in 2000, while the overall market declined.
The Finnish handset maker controlled 35% of the market in 2001 with
139,672 units sold, up from 30.6% and 126,369 units a year earlier,
Dataquest said.
Motorola saw unit sales dip 1.7%, from 60,094 in 2000 to 59,092 in
2001, but the company remains the world's second-largest handset
vendor, with a 14.8% market share, up from 14.6 in 2000, according
to the survey.
The difference in market share between the world's third, fourth
and fifth-largest handset makers is minimal. Siemens, Samsung
Electronics and Ericsson take 7.4%, 7.1% and 6.7% of the pie,
respectively, Dataquest said.
Of all the leading vendors Samsung saw the biggest growth, with
2001 unit sales at 28,234, up 36.8% from 20,639 in 2000. Samsung
diversifying its product portfolio and profiting from clever
marketing, according to Dataquest.
Siemens recorded a 10.2% growth in unit sales, while Ericsson,
which in October last year merged its handset business with Japan's
Sony, sold 35% fewer handsets. The Sony Ericsson joint venture
recently introduced its first phones and might win the third
overall market-share position back from its German rival Siemens,
Dataquest said.