The world's biggest mobile phone maker, Nokia, lost market share in the third quarter, as global shipments of handsets fell 10 per cent on the same period last year.
Mobile sales totalled 94.4 million units in the third quarter of 2001, with Nokia taking 33.4 per cent market share, according to research by Gartner Dataquest. This represents an 1.4 per cent fall in sales for Nokia, which had 34.8 per cent market share during the second quarter of 2001. The firm has increased its slice of the market by 2.8 per cent since the third quarter of 2000.
"Nokia, for the first time, had one of the older product portfolios among leading manufacturers, a development that undoubtedly resulted in the loss of some GSM market share," said Mr Bryan Prohm, analyst with Gartner.
This week in Spain, Nokia unveiled three new phones, including a colour screen model with an inbuilt camera. Nokia said it would start shipments of the colour screen 7650 in the second quarter of 2002 in Europe and Asia.
Nokia faced stiff competition in the third quarter from Motorola, which increased its market share to 15.7 per cent, from 13.3 per cent in the same period last year. Asian mobile phone maker Samsung also increased its market share over the year to 7.5 per cent, up from 4.3 per cent.
Three of the top five vendors experienced a decline in shipments during the third quarter of 2001, with both Ericsson and Siemens losing market share on the same period last year.
However, Mr Prohm said that Ericsson was positioned well for the future. "Ericsson has introduced a range of novel handsets, many of which have received positive reviews and seem eagerly awaited by consumers," he said.
The dramatic 10 per cent year- on-year drop in mobile sales was felt most in western Europe, where shipments fell between the second and third quarters of 2001.
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