Worldwide mobile sales up by 21% - Gartner

Worldwide mobile phone sales totalled 816.6 million during 2005, up 21 per cent from 2004, according to research firm Gartner.

Gartner says in its most recent report that the leading six mobile vendors increased their share of the market at the detriment of smaller vendors. Nokia retained top spot with nearly twice the market share of its nearest competitor, Motorola.

The fourth quarter of 2005 was strong with 235.1 million units shipped. Gartner said this figure represents "yet again the biggest quarter on record" since the research firm began tracking the market in 2001.

Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner said in a statement:  "Based on preliminary data for the first two months we expect to see a similar trend as in the first quarter of 2005 with a drop over the previous quarter in the region of five to eight percent."

The world's premier league of mobile vendors - all six of them - accounted for 79.4 percent of worldwide mobile phone sales in 2005. The leaders' market share increased from 78 percent in the first quarter to 84 percent in the fourth quarter of 2005. Siemens was knocked out of sixth place by an impressive BenQ which took 4.7 percent of Q4 unit shipments, according to the research firm.

Nokia easily beat Motorola into second place with 32.5 and 17.7 per cent of all mobile phone sales respectively. Samsung managed third place with 12.7 percent, LG on 6.7 percent, Sony Ericsson on 6.3 percent and Siemens on 3.5 percent.

"The industry experienced record sales due to continued strong growth in emerging markets, where falling prices for cellular connectivity (phones and subscriptions) resulted in higher-than-expected sales," said Milanesi. "In more mature markets, such as Western Europe and North America, replacement sales were driven by users that gave into the charm of highly fashionable devices."

The urge to trade-up hooked in Western European consumers during the fourth quarter with 49.1 million units sold, something Milanesi put down - in part - to fashion. "The trend in the fourth quarter was all about fashion, with phones such as the Motorola pink razr v3 and the Siemens CL75 Poppy capturing consumers' interest," Milanesi said. "In countries such as the UK, people were even prepared to subscribe to a new contract before their existing contract ended in order to acquire the pink razr phone."

Interestingly Milanesi said the Western European market is far more obsessed with how a phone looks than the American market. "In Europe the mobile as a status symbol is far stronger than in the US where the phone is still just a phone. In Europe the phone represents who you are."

North America enjoyed a record fourth quarter with mobile phone sales reaching 41.3 million units. In 2005, sales reached 148.4 million units. "Consumers continued to upgrade their phones with camera devices and unique form factors such as the Motorola razr V3," said Hugues De La Vergne, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner. "The region also experienced strong growth in the prepaid phone segment."

Sales in Latin America reached nearly 102 million units in 2005 according to Gartner, a 40 percent increase from 2004. However that growth is expected to slow according to Tuong Nguyen, analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner. "We expect year on year growth in the region in 2006 to be in the high single-digits."

In Asia/Pacific, mobile phone sales reached 56.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2005 and 204 million units in 2005. Sales in the region were fuelled by key markets such as China and India. "In China, sales were driven by strong growth in Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), while in India, subscriber additions in November and December exceeded all previous performances," said Ann Liang, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner.

Mobile phone sales in Japan totalled 11.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2005, and totalled 45 million units for the year.

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