Handset Shipments Surge 15 Percent In Second Quarter

A report from Strategy Analytics shows that 297 million mobile phones were shipped worldwide in the second quarter of 2008, and increase of 15 percent year-on-year. This is higher than at any time in 2007, and is due to strong growth in emerging markets. The news was mixed for most large handset vendors — even Motorola (NYSE: MOT) sales fell less than expected — with good and bad parts of the results. The top five going down:

Nokia: Nokia (NYSE: NOK) shipped 122 million handsets last quarter, up from 100.8 million handsets for the same time last year. This saw its marketshare increase to 41.1 percent, up from 38.9 percent a year ago. The bad news is that revenue, profit margin and ASP were all down year-on-year due partly to unfavorable exchange rates, but also to surging low-tier shipments and a sharp decline in Nokia’s share of the smartphone market.

Samsung: Samsung shipped 45.7 million handsets compared to 37.4 million in Q207. Its marketshare was 15.4 percent, compared to 14.4 percent a year ago. This (a 22 percent increase in unit sales) was Samsung’s slowest growth rate for nearly two years, which Strategy Analytics puts down to an unimpressive entry-tier GSM handset portfolio and its limited retail presence in Africa, India and Asia. It’s missing out on the growth of the low-end market, but admittedly it’s not the most profitable segment on a per-unit basis.

Motorola: Motorola sold 28.1 million handsets, down from 35.5 million a year ago. Its marketshare was 9.5 percent, down from 13.7 percent a year ago. And now the good news… Motorola sales didn’t fall as far as expected, allowing it to cling grimly to the third place ranking. Its decline in sales was at its slowest rate since the beginning of last year. It also managed to scrape in a $4 million profit for the business, and while this equates to zero cents per share making a small profit is a lot better than making a loss. Strategy Analytics sees these results as representing tentative signs of recovery.

More after the jump

LG: LG (SEO: 066570) sold 27.7 million handsets last quarter, up from 19.1 million a year ago, and its marketshare increased to 9.3 percent from 7.4 percent. This made it the fastest growing of the top 5 handset vendors. Turnover surged 39 percent annually, operating margin hit a record 14 percent and ASP rose 3 percent sequentially, giving pretty much no bad news for LG…except the analysts say its at the top of its product cycle and is likely to see increased competition in the coming quarters.

Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson: SE shipped 24.4 million handsets, down slightly on the 24.9 million handsets it shipped a year ago. Marketshare was 8.2 percent, down from 9.6 percent. The good news? There isn’t any: “Revenue, gross profit, operating profit and ASP all declined year-over-year.” That being said, it seems to be not so much in decline as in a holding pattern, and if it can bring out some good handsets outside of the mid-range it could resume its growth.

Other: All other handset manufacturers shipped 48.7 million units, up from 41.3 million a year ago. Marketshare was 16.4 percent, up from 15.9 percent a year ago. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) saw its marketshare plummet from a peak of 0.7 percent in Q407 to 0.2 percent last quarter, as the number of iPhone it shipped fell to 0.7 million from 1.7 million in the first quarter of this year. Of course, this is because Apple deliberately ran stocks down ahead of its iPhone 2.0 launch, and Strategy Analytics predicts the new phone to sell 3.5 million units globally next quarter, for a 1.1 percent marketshare.

Strategy Analytics forecasts 321 million units to be sold globally in Q3 2008, up 12 percent from Q3 2007.

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