Nokia Corp.’s broad range of products helped it snag 31.3 percent of the worldwide mobile phone market, according to a report from analyst group IDC.
The global market for mobile phones rose 23 percent year-over-year, increasing sequentially 7 percent in the third quarter to 164.1 million units shipped. The world’s largest handset manufacturer garnered the lion’s share of the market, more than doubling second-place Motorola Inc., which had 14.2 percent.
IDC said Nokia’s mid- and high-end handsets were largely responsible for its return to dominance among manufacturers. The third quarter marked the first time that Nokia had achieved more than 30 percent market share since the first quarter of the year.
Motorola edged Samsung, which earned 13.8 percent of the market share. Siemens AG (7.6 percent) and LG Electronics Co. Ltd. (7.2 percent) rounded out the top five, with Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. less than one percentage point behind.
“During the third quarter of 2004, the mobile-phone market continued to grow thanks to strong replacement trends in established markets and increased shipments into regions with low mobile penetration rates,” said David Linsalata, analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices program. “Key to this growth has been the continued effort by mobile-phone vendors to engage in a constant cycle of innovation, improvement and renewal throughout their product portfolios.”
