Q1 phone shipments up, but growth slows

Worldwide mobile phone shipments hit 256.4 million units in Q1, said IDC.

This represented a ten per cent increase year on year, but the actual total was 13.8 per cent lower than the record shipments recorded in the previous quarter.

Although the market may still be positive, the rate of growth is slowing. Through 2006, average quarterly growth was 20 per cent. IDC believes this is because high market penetration is making replacement handset sales, rather than first time handset sales, the dominant factor.

Rankings did not change among the top five vendors, although Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG increased their market shares at the expense of Motorola and the other vendors outside the top five.

Manufacturer            Q1 shipments        market share

Nokia                         91.1m             (35.5%)
Motorola                   45.4m             (17.7%)    
Samsung                34.8m             (13.6%)    
Sony Ericsson         21.8m             (8.5%)    
LG Electronics         15.8m             (6.2%)
Others                         47.5m            (18.5%)