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Oct. 31, 2009

According to a Strategy Analytics report published earlier today, global handset shipments took a turn for the better in the third quarter of this year, and it looks like there is a new trend that could be forming at this point.

The research, which concludes that the recession could have ended in the last month, and that the handset market could be on the mend, comes just one day after the U.S. government reported that gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2009.

The report also found that shipments for the quarter were down about 4.1 percent compared to the year-ago quarter. That's an improvement, since for the same quarter last year, the drop was around 7.3 percent.

Strategy Analytics forecasts the handset industry to return to positive growth in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Additionally, the report also found that Nokia led the pack, shipping about 108 million units for the same quarter. For its part, Samsung shipped almost 60.3 million handsets globally and captured a record 21 percent market share in the third quarter.

Samsung now sits alongside Nokia and Motorola as the only three vendors to have passed the 20 percent threshold during the past 10 years.

"Overall, global mobile handset shipments dropped to about 291 million units during Q3 2009, down 4 percent from 304 million units in Q3 last year. The four-percent shrinkage was a noticeable improvement on the average decline of 11 percent recorded during the previous three quarters between Q4 of last year and Q2 of this year.

On average, Strategy Analytics forecasts 300 million handsets to be shipped worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2009. That number would represent a slight uptick from the 294 million units shipped in fourth quarter of last year.

LG Electronics shipped a little less than 31.63 million handsets worldwide during the third quarter, for an eleven percent market share. Samsung and LG captured about 31 percent of the entire global handset market between them.

According to the report, attractive touch screen portfolios and a growing retail presence have been the keys to the companies' success.

Bonny Joy, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics says "overall, the wireless handset market is edging toward recovery, and we are seeing a bit of better times ahead."

For its part, Apple shipped a healthy 7.4 million iPhones globally in the third quarter, for a record 2.5 percent market share.

Apple, which launched the iPhone in China this week, is expanding its distribution networks into all major regions worldwide, which drove volume growth.

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Source: Strategy Analytics.