EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—A growing chorus of vendors and analysts have raised projections that 2006 will be another record-setting year for handset shipments, as iSuppli Corp. raised its forecast for 2006 to 932 million handset shipments, up from its previous estimate of 900 million. The increase represents growth of nearly 14 percent, versus iSuppli’s previous forecast of nearly 10-percent growth.
iSuppli in part based its rosier projections on strong first-quarter shipments by Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., both of which defied seasonal lulls that typically follow the holiday sales season. Both vendors posted significant market share gains in the first quarter, according to iSuppli. Worldwide phone production in the first quarter was 220 million units, a 26-percent increase over the year-ago quarter.
iSuppli’s estimates followed closely on the heels of a CIBC World Markets report indicating that the investment bank would raise its estimates for handset shipments to 970 million units for the year, up from previous estimates of 920 million units. According to CIBC, Motorola is the vendor most likely to benefit from increased market share.
Earlier this year, just prior to announcing its first-quarter earnings, Nokia Corp. led the pack in forecasting greater-than-anticipated growth in handset shipments for 2006. Under Nokia’s revised forecast released at the end of March, the company expects industrywide handset shipments of about 915 million phones this year, an increase of about 120 million units from last year.
