14 DAY TRIAL // According to a recent report from iSuppli Corp, the cellphone industry went out of recession. The mobile phone maker had a great end quarter of 2009, and the smartphone segment is expected to increase considerably during the ongoing year, showing that the end of the recession has arrived.
The worldwide shipments of mobile phones went up to 1.15 billion units during the last year, even if the global economy faced challenges. The overall volume of shipments went down when compared to 2008, when they reached 1.2 billion handsets, but the fourth quarter of 2009 is said to have marked the return to growth. When compared to the third quarter, shipments in the fourth one went up by 15.5 percent, reaching 335 million units.
“Given the recovery of the market in the final quarter of 2009, and with Europe, Latin America and the Middle East/Africa regions doing exceptionally well during the period, the recession can be said to be officially over for the cell phone industry,” said Tina Teng, senior analyst for wireless systems at iSuppli. “The continued growth this year of total handsets—up a projected 11.3 percent to 1.3 billion units—further bolsters such a view.”
The research firm notes that smartphones are expected to register a growth of around 35.5 percent in 2010. This impressive increase will be driven by new developments, such as the introduction of entry-level smartphones, or the enthusiasm vendors across the mobile phone industry show. Moreover, the large increase of 3G networks deployments and the availability of data-centric services is another factor that will drive smartphone growth upwards.
iSuppli also notes that the top 5 handset vendors accounted for 77 percent of all phone shipments in the fourth quarter of the last year, with approximately 257.6 million units shipped. Nokia secured the first position on the market with 126.9 million handsets delivered in the time frame and with 37.9 percent share of market. Samsung came in on the second position, with 20.6 percent share, followed by LG Electronics on the third place, with 10.1 percent share, Sony Ericsson in fourth, with 4.4 percent, and ZTE, in the fifth place, with a 4.0 percent share.
“A second Chinese handset manufacturer, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., landed in seventh place after also finishing an outstanding quarter with 82.4 percent growth. Together, the two Chinese companies indicate the strong momentum occurring in the emerging market as well as an increasing presence in Europe on their part with key operators,” the research firm concludes.