The world’s No. 2 handset maker Motorola Inc. continued to dominate the fractured U.S. mobile-phone market in the third quarter, while the world’s largest handset supplier, Nokia Corp., sits at a distant fourth place.
According to numbers from research and consulting firm Strategy Analytics, Motorola commanded a solid 36 percent of the U.S. mobile-phone market in the third quarter. Indeed, Strategy Analytics said Motorola “is possibly the only vendor that is profitable in the U.S. market and this advantage that has fueled its rise to the top of the market will help it remain there through 2006.”
Strategy Analytics said Motorola has profited from strong interest in its Razr and iTunes-capable phones. Further, the company’s forthcoming holiday-season handsets-including the Slvr and Pebl-likely will firm the vendor’s already solid footing.
“There is still room for Motorola to grow share in North America,” Strategy Analytics wrote in a new research report provided exclusively to RCR Wireless News. “Motorola is turning its attention to CDMA with the product design efficiencies gleaned over the last several years (i.e. CDMA Razr), and barring a major misstep, improvements in CDMA are expected for Motorola in 2006.”
The same cannot be said for Nokia, which enjoys a worldwide market share of around 32 percent. In the United States, Nokia sits a distant fourth with a 15 percent market share. South Korean vendors LG Electronics Co. Ltd. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. both stand ahead of Nokia in the U.S. market.
“Nokia continues to suffer from a general lack of competitive style/designs in the mid-tier GSM segment,” wrote Strategy Analytics. “The global leader is, like all other OEMs, struggling to be profitable in this multi-technology market. Low response to carrier-drive periods and a general low-level market presence through early 4Q does not bode well for short-term share improvements.”
Strategy Analytics said Nokia may be hoping to sell devices that will run on Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s planned W-CDMA network but warned sales of such gadgets would be relatively slow.
Strategy Analytics said Motorola leads the U.S. market, followed by LG, Samsung, and Nokia. The firm said Kyocera Wireless Corp., Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., UTStarcom Inc. and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. round out the top eight. The firm said handset makers shipped a total of 19 million CDMA phones in the third quarter, and 16 million GSM phones.
