Aug. 15, 2006

According to the NPD Group, American consumers spent about $4.4 billion on 67 million mobile phones in the first six months of 2006.

Motorola Inc. captured 32 percent market share, or nearly one-third of those sales, double the market share of its nearest rivals.

Nokia Corp. and LG Electronics Co. Ltd. each garnered 16 percent market share, while Samsung Electronics Co. achieved a 15 percent market share.

Other major handset vendors and their market share, according to NPD Group, included Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. and Kyocera Wireless Corp. (4 percent each), Sanyo Corp. (3.2 percent), UTStarcom Inc. (2 percent) and Research In Motion Ltd. and Palm Inc. (greater than 1 percent each).

Motorola dominated GSM-related sales in the first half of the year with 42 percent market share, while Nokia grabbed 23 percent of GSM sales in the United States and Samsung captured 13 percent.

On the CDMA side, LG led the market with 36 percent market share, trailed by Samsung (18 percent) and Motorola (14 percent).

The NPD Group’s data showed that Bluetooth-enabled phones accounted for 22 percent of all new handset sales in the second quarter, while music-enabled phones comprised 10 percent of sales in the most recent quarter.

That means Bluetooth-enabled handset sales were up more than 150 percent and music-enabled phone sales have doubled since the same quarter last year.

The NPD Group’s data is based on more than 150,000 online consumer surveys completed each month.

Source: RCR News