Mobile phone sales at 1.2 billion units in 2009

Gartner, the USA-based global research firm, said that mobile phone sales to end users worldwide stood at 1.2 billion units in 2009, a 0.9 per cent decline from 2008.
In 2009, the top five handset companies were Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson, which continued to lose market share to Apple and other vendors, with their combined share dropping from about 79 per cent in 2008 to 75 per cent in 2009. Nokia’s annual mobile phone sales, to end users, was 441 million units, 2.2 per cent lower than the market share Nokia had enjoyed in 2008. Samsung was the clear winner among the top five with market share growing by 3.2 percentage points from 16.3 per cent in 2008. Motorola saw the sharpest drop in market share, to 4.8 per cent in 2009 from 8.7 per cent in 2008.
The study by Gartner says that throughout 2009, intense price competition put pressure on average selling prices (ASPs). Major handset manufacturers had to respond more aggressively in markets such as India and China to compete with white-box (lower rung) producers, while in mature markets they competed primarily with each other. However, a better economic environment and stabilisation of fluctuating ASPs is expected in 2010.
Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, said in a statement, “The mobile devices market finished on a very positive note, driven by growth in smart phones and low-end devices. In 2009, smart phone sales reached 172 million units, increasing 23.8 per cent from 2008. In 2009, smart phone-focused vendors like Apple and Research In Motion (RIM), owner of BlackBerry, successfully captured market share from other larger device producers, controlling 14.4 and 19.9 per cent of the worldwide smart phone market, respectively.”
In the smartphone operating software market, Symbian continued its lead, but its share dropped 5.4 percentage points in 2009. The two best performers in 2009 were Google’s Android and Apple. Android garnered a market share of 3.5 per cent in 2009, while Apple’s share grew by 6.2 percentage points from 2008.