Handset production, smaller than demands

Sep 22, 2007 07:06 GMT  ·  By

The land of all possibilities might just fail to meet the mobile phone demand that people in the US will make. The crisis is expected to come in the fourth quarter of this year, as a result of an ambiguous reason.

These results come from a study recently conducted by Matthew Hoffman, an analyst from Cowen research company. They stated that the problem that will lead to the handset shortage could be put on account of a dropping LCD supply. This is only a supposition at this time, as the exact causes are not known.

The disturbing aspect of this handset shortage is that it will be made of millions of units, which gives it great proportions. There will also be some companies thrilling over this situation, as they might have only gains. Motorola and Nokia are the main ones, as the two companies hold important shares on the US market. They will not be alone, as the same will go for Brightpoint, Research in Motion (the BlackBerry smartphones producer) and Sony Ericsson.

The ones to have greatest reasons to fear this possibility are the handset producers that currently hold a small market share, as this position should accentuate even further. A Credit Suisse analyst confirmed the predictions of the Cowen research company, which gives this incredible tendency higher chances of actually happening. Qualcomm, Motorola and Nokia will be the ones to benefit from the situation.

Third quarter handset demand is "significantly ahead of normal seasonality", said the Credit Suisse analyst. The reason for this situation is mainly that of mobile phone demand increasing in Europe, China, India and the U.S. The third quarter global unit sales to 292 million from 284 million. If the same growth should happen in the fourth quarter of this year as well, the producers' expectations will be surpassed and a handset shortage will be experienced in the US.