Worldwide mobile phone unit sales reached 93.8 million units in Q1 2002, a 3.8% decline compared to last year, according to Gartner Dataquest.
Nokia experienced a slight decline in global sales to end-users compared to the same quarter last year although the company did manage a slight increase in market share versus the same quarter 2001. Motorola’s market share position continued to grow strongly in the first quarter of 2002 whilst Samsung and Siemens experienced the strongest increase in sales, with growth rates of 48.6% and 24.1% respectively during Q1.
“Samsung’s spectacular growth is a reflection of its ongoing success in delivering compelling products across multiple technologies in disparate markets, said Bryan Prohm, senior analyst at Gartner Dataquest. “Siemens, meanwhile, continued to build on the success it achieved during the latter half of 2001, and it is positioned to make a competitive push in the North American and Latin American GSM markets in 2002.”
“Saturation levels in Western Europe mean driving new growth remains a challenge,” said Ben Wood, senior analyst for Gartner Dataquest in Europe. “The industry is faced with an ‘application gap,’ which could prove detrimental. Subscribers remain unconvinced about the benefits of owning a data-capable phone without the appropriate applications. However, the advent of colour screens will help as subscribers are willing to buy colour for the sake of colour.”
“Stronger-than-expected subscriber growth in Russia and other emerging markets in Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East during the first quarter helped keep sell-in volumes in line with expectations, and also kindled another quarter of strong grey market movement of mobile terminals,” Prohm added. “Overall, sales to end users slightly outpaced sell-in during 1Q02, and global inventory returned to ‘normal’ levels.”
