Despite some `hiccups’ within the industry and key supply channels, phone sales worldwide grew 46 percent to 412.7 million units last year, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group Inc.
This rosy picture was, however, sullied by a general slowdown as the year ended.
“Persistent rumors of a market slowdown that dogged the industry throughout the year started to prove true toward the end of 2000,” said Bryan Prohm, senior analyst for Gartner Dataquest’s worldwide telecommunications group. He explained further that the “afterburners that propelled several years of consistently high growth areas now suddenly seem to have been switched off.”
He said the figures have some bearing on this year. “Indeed, there is some significant stock carryover to the beginning of 2001, meaning the number of total shipments in 2000 was about 6 million units lower than previous estimates.”
According to the report, Finnish phone maker Nokia Corp. led the way in sales with 126,369 shipments, representing 66 percent growth over the previous year and about 30 percent of the market share.
Nokia had issued a report prior to its fourth quarter results indicating a drop in handset sales in the fourth quarter and had also signaled slow growth in the first quarter of 2001.
Motorola came off a distant second with 60,094 shipments, representing a 25.7-percent increase and 14.6 percent of the market share. Swedish vendor Ericsson came in third with 41,467 shipments, a 39.2-percent surge, representing 10 percent of the market share.
Germany’s Siemens was fourth with 26,989 shipments, representing a 52.6-percent rise and 6.5 percent of the market share.
Describing 2000 as a transitional year, Gartner Dataquest analysts identified four hints for a healthier market in the future. They said global capacity caught up with demand; lowered barriers to entry allowed secondary makers to make inroads into key Far Eastern markets such as China; savvy mobile-phone users were disappointed with WAP, which has suffered vitriolic attacks since its launch; and carriers exhibited a preference toward building customer loyalty over straightforward subscriber acquisition.
“The long-term prospects for the mobile sector look tough,” said Peter Richardson, principal analyst for Gartner Dataquest’s worldwide telecommunications group. “Few manufacturers are able to generate healthy profit margins, placing the necessary investments in next-generation handset developments at risk. The smart money may be riding on the players that are familiar with upper echelon vendors.”
