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Aug. 3, 2008

On July 30, Nokia dropped the price on some of its high-end music phones to apply more pressure on some of its competitors, namely Sony Ericsson.

Nokia didn't comment, but with a 41 percent world market share, the handset manufacturer dwarfs all competitors.

The most recent numbers place Samsung at 15.3 percent market share and Motorola at 9.4 percent, with LG (Life's Good) very close to Motorola at 9.3 percent.

Overall market share for Sony Ericsson has dropped to 8.2 percent and the company announced layoffs.

Now Nokia could be looking to squeeze the market even further. It’s unknown if the Finnish handset maker has intentions to start an industry price war, or reduce the Sony division’s value for a possible acquisition, or just simply to continue gaining market share for itself.

In the mean time, Motorola still isn't saying who might acquire its mobile phone division. Names mentioned have included everyone from Google to Indian consumer electronics company Videocon Industries.

But that remains to be seen.

Compared to Samsung and LG which have higher profit margins, Motorola is the least able to reduce retail prices.

However, on Friday, Motorola did announce better-than-expected quarterly results.

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    This article was featured on Business 5.0.

Source: Nokia.