14 DAY TRIAL // The mobile phone market has seen a decline in the last several months, as the global economic turmoil and the lower demand for handsets have affected most of the manufacturers. Yet it seems that things might not be as bad as originally expected, at least when it comes to the financial results of one of the world's leading mobile phone makers, Samsung.
According to the latest news on the Web, the Korean mobile phone manufacturer is expected to post rather good revenues for the first quarter of this year, at least this is what the Korean brokerage research firm Woori Investment&Securities states.
Samsung previously announced that it expected to experience a 10 to 15 percent decline for its mobile phone shipments this year, yet the company is now reported to be able to sell around 46.3 million devices in the first quarter of the ongoing year, which would be the same amount of units it managed to ship in Q1 last year.
At the same time, the shipments should help the company raise its market share from 18 percent it registered in Q4 2008 up to 19 percent this quarter on a global scale. Back in Q1 2008, the phone maker accounted for 14.1 percent of the market, and the growth would be visible, provided that previsions regarding a 14 percent drop in overall global handset sales prove true.
The fact that Samsung has managed to register success during the last few months is suggested to have been driven by smartphone sales going up, while the European and Chinese markets have seen improvements. The average selling prices for Samsung phones have also increased, and the company could see a 7.4 percent operating margin for handsets.
For the time being, there are no official words on the matter from Samsung, yet it would be a nice thing to see the company announcing good quarterly results at times when most leading industry players, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola are having rather difficult times.