Gartner Dataquest says worldwide mobile phone sales showed signs of rebounding in the second quarter of 2002; 98.7 million handsets were sold - a minute increase of 0.8%.
Worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 98.7 million units in the second quarter of 2002, a 0.8 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Dataquest, a unit of research firm Gartner. Gartner Dataquest analysts said there are signs that the mobile phone industry has reached a point of stability and is positioned for stronger growth.
"Mobile terminal manufacturers are preparing for a comprehensive transition of their product portfolios during the back half of 2002 to embrace color displays and other mobile data-enabling technologies," said Bryan Prohm, senior analyst with the Mobile Communications Worldwide research group for Gartner Dataquest. "Carriers meanwhile, are increasingly focused on commercializing new applications and services. Many of these services, such as multimedia messaging service (MMS) may serve to augment operator revenue from across a mature subscriber base while simultaneously acting a catalyst for replacement sales."
Nokia continued to dominate worldwide mobile phone sales during the second quarter of 2002, thanks to the continued competitiveness of its entry-level Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) portfolio. Motorola meanwhile, saw sequential growth from the first quarter of this year, while preparing to engage Nokia in Nokia's core GSM markets during the traditionally strong fourth quarter with the launch of the C330.
Samsung strengthened its position as the No. 3 vendor during the quarter, increasing its year-over-year sales by 46.4 percent. "Samsung is now on the verge of achieving 10 percent global market share during the latter half of the year. This is a psychologically important market share objective and further evidence that Samsung is clearly in Nokia's and Motorola's rearview mirrors," Prohm said.
Gartner Dataquest's outlook for replacement sales during the back half of the year remains steadfastly optimistic, particularly in Western Europe. "The frenzy of marketing activity around new services such as picture and photo messaging by mobile network operators in Western Europe is likely to fuel replacement demand for color mobile phones in the second half of 2002," said Ben Wood, senior analyst for Gartner Dataquest in Europe. "The extremely aggressive pricing of entry-level phones by some manufacturers may lead to a renewed offensive by certain network operators to increase their subscriber bases by once again offering low-priced prepaid packages at the end of the year."
"Overall, expectations remain high for a strong fourth quarter selling season worldwide, driven in part by the introduction of numerous new, low-cost terminals from leading manufacturers," Prohm said. "Therefore, we continue to believe that worldwide mobile terminal sales to end users will reach approximately 420 million units in 2002."
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