Mobile Phone Sales Keep Rising Worldwide

Global mobile phone sales continued to surge in the first quarter, when shipments reached 282 million, research firm Strategy Analytics said Friday.

Helsinki, Finland-based Nokia Corp. kept its top position, slightly increasing market share to 41 percent. Samsung Electronics in South Korea remained at No. 2 — boosting its market share to 16 percent — while U.S. handset maker Motorola Corp. fell below 10 percent but stayed in third place.

“Demand remained strong in emerging markets, particularly in Africa and Asia,” the report stated. “Korean vendors LG and Samsung were the star performers, growing two to four times faster than the industry average.”

Motorola “slumped and is in real danger of being overtaken by LG,” whose market share rose to 8.6 percent from 7.2 percent, the report said.

Nokia, selling 116 million handsets in the quarter, maintained a “commanding” share. Last week, Nokia said it sold 115 million handsets and its market share fell to 39 percent from 40 percent in the previous quarter.

In the U.S., Nokia’s market share dwindled from 20 percent to some 7 percent in just two years, the report said, cautioning that Nokia’s share of the smart phone market had fallen from about 50 percent in early 2007 to 44 percent.

Originally published by Bloomberg AP and Staff Reports.

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