Mobiles Market: Missed Call
Marketers are struggling to sell their phones in the global mobiles
market that continues to move at a sluggish pace. According to IDC,
vendors shipped a total of 289.0 million units in the fourth quarter of
2008 (4Q08), 12.6% lower than the 330.8 million units shipped during
4Q07. For the full year 2008, vendors shipped a total of 1.18 billion
units worldwide, 3.5% greater than the 1.14 billion units shipped during
2007.
If
there was one highlight in 2008 it was that the converged
mobile devices
segment (commonly referred to as smartphones) grew 22.5% over 2007,
clearly outpacing the rest of the industry, says IDC.
However, in
a recent study, another
research firm Gartner said that the
harsh economic situation is affecting the smartphone market. It observed
that the worldwide smartphone sales reached the lowest growth rate of
11.5% with 36.5 million units sold in the third quarter of 2008.
Here’s
another
observation from International Telecommunication
Union (ITU), a leading United Nations agency for technology
issues. Since the turn of the century, ITU observes, the growth of
mobile cellular subscribers has been impressive, with year-on-year
growth averaging 24% between 2000 and 2008. While in 2000, mobile
penetration stood at only 12%, it surpassed the 50% mark by early 2008.
It is estimated to reach about 61% by the end of 2008. And ITU said that
there will be 4 billion mobile subscribers by the end of 2008.
In December last year,
IDC had
predicted that the mobile phone market will get affected because of
economic crisis and total
mobile phone volumes will be 1.9% lower in 2009
than 2008 levels. The researcher expected worldwide growth to
be just 7.1% in 2008 before slipping into negative growth in 2009.
IDC
says that the North America market suffered both sequential and
year-over-year declines in 4Q08 as economic conditions worsened. The
Latin America mobile phone marketplace showed a slowdown in 4Q08 as
falling currency exchange rates led to a decline in both consumer and
commercial purchases.
The
Western Europe handset market was hit by the financial crisis and shrank
in the final quarter of 2008. While the previously buoyant market in
Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa did not show a
major retrenchment against the last quarter of 2007, the shipments of
market leader Nokia were weak and sales of converged mobile devices
contracted in relation to the total market.
As the
Asia/Pacific market declined in 4Q08, device makers seeking a respite in
the emerging market of China were left disappointed. Chinese consumers
held off on mobile phone purchases for much of the quarter, largely due
to the worsening economic climate, but also due to some anticipation of
3G promotions in 2009.
According to IDC, Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola are
the top mobile vendors.
