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Apr. 25, 2007

In the first quarter, worldwide cell phone shipments were lower by about 12.8 percent, a typical decline following the peak fourth-quarter buying season.

However, Samsung went against that trend with a 9.1 percent boost in mobile phone shipments to 34.8 million units during the same period, up from 31.9 million units in the fourth quarter of last year.

Overall, Samsung was the only top-five phone brand to see its unit shipments rise on a sequential basis in the first quarter.

For its part, Nokia's shipments were lower by roughly 13.5 percent. Global mobile phone shipments of Sony Ericsson were down a little over 16 percent, while LG saw a 6.5 percent drop in its shipments.

However, Motorola suffered the largest drop, with almost a 31 percent fall in its shipments.

Samsung's higher shipment numbers were mainly due to increased sales of low-end, inexpensivie mobile phones.

Although shipments were up, Samsung's mobile phone average selling price fell by 10 percent during the first quarter.

During that time, Motorola witnessed a fractional 0.4 percent rise in its overall selling prices.

But with the upcoming release of the iPhone, Motorola could be the hardest hit, according to a recent cell phone survey by ChangeWave.

Of those surveyed who said they would switch to the iPhone once it becomes available, 33 percent currently own Motorola cell phones.

Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave Research said in a statement "as more and more consumers switch to the iPhone, we are going to see a huge migration from cell phone manufacturers like Motorola to the cooler and slimmer iPhone."

Smith added "because of Apple's deal with AT&T's Cingular as their exclusive service provider for the iPhone, we are also going to see a big migration away from Verizon and other cellular providers."

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Source: Wireless Week