Cell phone giants regain lost market in third quarter

Cell phone giants regain lost market in third quarter

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) — Leading manufactures of cell phones that had lost market share in the first quarter of 2003 have regained the field in the third quarter, US market research company IDC said Wednesday.

The combined market share of Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Siemens and LG Electronics dipped to 71.4 percent in the first quarter of 2003, from 77.3 percent in the last quarter of 2002. But IDC said the companies have fought back and have 76.6 percent of the market in the third quarter.

“Consumer demand continued to build across all market segments in the third quarter, driving healthy performances for the top five vendors,” IDC analyst David Linsalata said in a statement. ” The proliferation of camera phones and color phones into the worldwide market continues to spark consumer interest in new handsets and spur the mobile phone market to higher growth.”

IDC said globally, the mobile phone market shipments grew by 21. 2 percent, year-over-year, in the third quarter.

Nokia kept the top spot in the third quarter, with 35 percent market share. Motorola was in second place, boasting a market share of 15.5 percent, ahead of Samsung Electronics with 11.5 percent, and Siemens with 8.7 percent.

LG Electronics pushed Sony Ericsson out of the number-five spot, with 5.8 percent compared to Sony Ericsson’s 5.5 percent.

An earlier study by US research firm Strategy Analytics predicted that 492 million cell phones would be sold in 2003.