Samsung storms Motorola's last bastion and seizes US lead
Published: 10 November, 2008
READ MORE: Motorola | Samsung | US
Motorola's worst fears were confirmed last week when its US stronghold was successfully stormed by Samsung. The beleaguered handset maker had revealed during the announcement of its third quarter results just how dependent it is on the north American market, with 50% of its handset sales going there, yet it has still ceded its market lead to its rival, even without the force of Nokia to contend with as in other territories.
According to new figures from Strategy Analytics, the US handset market grew by 6.2% in the quarter, with 47.4m units shipped, defying the downturn through "attractive bundling schemes from operators, healthy subsidies and aggressive pre-stocking by distributors ahead of the holiday season," according to research director Neil Mawston.
Within that market, the Koreans shone, with Samsung grasping 22.4% and LG 20.5% of the total. Samsung's success was credited to an increased retail presence and attractive high end range, which has penetrated all four top cellcos. Motorola clung on to second place with 21.1% share, down sharply from 32.7% a year earlier. In the second quarter, amid collapsing financials, the US lead was the one title to which the phonemaker managed to hang on, but now it is in real danger of slipping to third, as LG rolls out its holiday season upgrades, at a time when Moto has a large number of midrange models but no smartphone star turn.
Nokia continues to struggle in the US, with many analysts believing it should defocus on the market - as Motorola is doing in Nokia-dominated Europe - until LTE, where Nokia should shine, starts to kick in and give the Finn a new chance to penetrate the hostile US carriers. The company's US share fell slightly year-on-year to 8.4%, but was up a little on the first half of 2008. It trailed RIM, which gained more than 10% share for the second quarter in a row.
Samsung's latest US phones, the GSM/W-CDMA models Behold and Gravity, will launch via T-Mobile later this month. Behold features a full HTML browser and Samsung's advanced TouchWiz user interface with customizable widgets. It also offers a 3-inch touchscreen with 240x400 resolution, 5-megapixel camera with video recording capabilities, haptic feedback and a MP3 player, plus an 8Gb microSD memory card.
The GSM Gravity has full slide-out Qwerty keyboard; quick access to T-Mobile's MyFaces service and to instant messaging clients, text, multimedia and video messaging; and a 1.3-megapixel camera with video recording. It will cost $49.99 with a two-year contract, and Behold will cost $150 on the same deal.
Related Stories
COMMENTS
Digital Money: The Convergence of Contactless Card and Mobile Payments
This report examines the emergence of digital money from the perspective of the convergence of card-based proximity payments to the...
Cloudbooks: Market Analysis and Forecasts
This report is based on interviews with device OEMs, retailers and resellers and provides a comprehensive analysis of the new cloudbook...
Satellite Phones: Will Dual Mode Help the Phoenix Rise from the Ashes?
Satellite phones have followed an arduous path since their much-hyped launch more than a decade ago. The hype was followed by an e...
