Nokia snatches lead in camera-phone market: report

Nokia snatches lead in camera-phone market: report

WASHINGTON, March 29 (Xinhua) — Nokia corp., facing intense competition from Asian consumer-electronics companies, has snatched the lead in the red-hot market for camera phones, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

In the fourth quarter last year, the Finnish company accounted for 14 percent of global shipments of mobile phones with built-in cameras, compared with 12 percent for Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea, and 12 percent for Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd., said the report citing a research firm Strategy Analytics.

Sony Ericsson is a joint venture of Sony Corp., Japan and Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson, Sweden.

Still, Neil Mawston, a United Kingdom analyst with Strategy Analytics, said he is confident Nokia will be the leading camera- phone supplier this year thanks to growing demand for the devices in Europe and the United States.

“We definitely expect them to retain that lead through 2004,” he said. “But Samsung may run them close in quarter one and quarter two.” Samsung is the third-largest mobile-phone maker, by shipments, behind Motorola Inc. of the United States.

Camera-phone shipments already outstrip shipments of digital cameras by some distance thanks to falling prices and improving capabilities. Strategy Analytics said 49 million digital cameras were shipped worldwide last year. The average wholesale price of a camera phone fell to 310 dollars last year from 420 dollars in 2002, according to investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

Nokia has said that it plans to release about 40 new handsets this year, the same number as in 2003, the report said.