Top five mobile phone vendors still an Apple-free zone

by Stevie Smith - Nov 3 2008, 14:00

Its iconic iPhone may have left a considerable mark on the consciousness of smartphone consumers, but gadget and computer specialist Apple Inc. has still to weigh in on the list of leading mobile phone vendors, according to a new business report.

Specifically, market intelligence firm IDC has this week released its third-quarter breakdown of mobile phone shipments for 2008, and Cupertino-based Apple is not on it.

Finnish handset titan Nokia Corp. continues to head the field, with heavyweights such as Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG Electronics rounding out the Q3 top five manufacturers.

In terms of the quarterly winners and losers, increased competition and the current economical climate appears to have struck American company Motorola the hardest.

Having shipped 37.2 million units in Q3 of 2007, the company only managed 25.4 in Q3 of 2008 for a loss of 31.7 percent via a year-on-year market share drop from 12.8 percent to 8.5 percent.

Although not suffering quite as badly, Sony Ericsson also made a loss of 0.8 percent through Q3 shipments of 25.7 million compared to 25.9 million during the same period in 2007. The company’s year-on-year market standing dropped from 8.9 percent to 8.6 percent.

Increasing its lead, although not substantially, Espoo-based Nokia posted improved Q3 shipment numbers of 117.8 million as opposed to the 111.7 million it posted in 2007. As a result, its market share advantage increased from 38.6 percent to 39.4 percent.

The prize for biggest shipment improvement goes to Samsung, which moved some 51.8 million units in Q3 over the 42.6 million it managed the year before, which equates to an increase of 21.6 percent and a market share improvement from 14.7 percent to 17.3 percent.

LG also enjoyed a modicum of growth, shipping some 23.0 million units in Q3 of 2008 compared to the 21.9 million in 2007. Its market growth shifted up an iota from 7.6 percent to 7.7 percent as a result.

According to IDC, Apple is located in the 9.9 percent market share split between “Others,” which combined for a Q3 shipment total of 55.3 million units.

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