14 DAY TRIAL // The market of mobile phones in Western Europe has started to grow, something that happens for the first time in the last four or five quarters. According to a recent report form IDC, the Western European market grew 5 percent on a yearly basis during the third quarter of the ongoing year. The research firm also shows that the number of shipped devices reached 46.8 million units in the time frame, marking a rise of 11 percent. IDC says that these increases show that consumer demand is on the rise, and that carriers also started to stock up for the Christmas season.
“The mobile phone market is showing strong signs of improvement since the onset of the economic crisis,” says Francisco Jeronimo, European mobile devices research manager with IDC. “The quarter's growth was supported by the traditional mobile phones (TMP), the biggest segment of the market, but affected by the trend towards smartphones. Samsung and LG have been particularly strong in the TMP segment, with their portfolios boosting sales of feature phones. On the other hand, converged mobile devices (commonly known as smartphones) saw negative growth due to the lack of materials and supply chain problems experienced by some of the major vendors, which were not able to supply the high demand from operators.”
According to the IDC European Mobile Phone Tracker, the sales of traditional mobile phones grew 6 percent when compared to the third quarter a year ago, and 14 percent from the previous quarter, mainly due to great traction touchscreen and messaging handsets from Samsung and LG have seen on the market. At the same time, the sales of converged mobile devices (CMDs) declined 2 percent YOY, yet rose 2 percent on a quarterly basis. The most massive growth in the smartphone segment was seen by RIM (87 percent) and Apple, it seems, while others registered decline.
“Overall, Nokia continues to be the market leader, with 35.3% market share in 3Q09, followed by Samsung with 30.5%. The gap between these two has been narrowing, and Nokia is facing a significant threat of being overtaken by Samsung in Western Europe in 2010. The Korean manufacturer is already the leader in the traditional mobile phone segment, and is developing a wider portfolio of smartphones, with several devices running Windows Mobile, Android, and LiMo, which will allow Samsung to significantly increase its smartphone shipments in 2010. During the quarter, LG overtook Sony Ericsson's position, becoming the third biggest player in Western Europe for the first time,” IDC notes.