Worldwide mobile phone sales grow 13.8% in Q2

Worldwide mobile phone sales grow 13.8% in Q2: "(Telecompaper) Worldwide mobile device sales to end users totalled 325.6 million units in Q2, up 13.8 percent from the same period in 2009, according to a study by Gartner.

Smartphone sales to end users accounted for 19 percent of worldwide mobile device sales, an increase of 50.5 percent from the second quarter of 2009.

Although the mobile phone market showed double-digit growth this quarter, average selling prices were lower than expected and margins fell.

Gartner attributes the decline in ASPs to a stronger dollar, a depreciating euro and intense competition that drove price adjustments and changes to the product mix.

Manufacturers such as LG and Samsung pursued market share in a low-margin market but this approach proved risky, as shown by LG's decline of 27.8 percent in ASP in Q2. While new product introductions from Apple, HTC and Motorola, along with the drop in ASPs, drove strong sales of smartphones, shortages of components such as Amoled displays impaired sales volumes of some of the more popular new smartphones. HTC made its debut in the top ten worldwide ranking, in eighth position with 139.1 percent growth year-on-year. This reflects the popularity of its Android portfolio and also a more aggressive branding strategy compared to a year ago.

In the second quarter, Nokia's mobile device sales to end users reached 111.5 million units and a share of 34.2 percent. Nokia's economies of sales and excellent distribution enabled it to hold on to the top spot in the mobile device market, but the company lost 2.6 percentage points year-on-year. Samsung sold 65.3 million devices in Q2, which translated into a 20.1 percent market share. Although Samsung's sales were strong in developing markets, its shift in product mix caused an overall decline in ASP. Research In Motion's mobile device sales reached 11.2 million units in Q2, confirming RIM's position as the fourth largest brand with a share of 3.4 percent in Q2. Apple's mobile device sales reached 8.7 million units or a 2.7 percent share of the overall mobile device market, but 14.2 percent of the smartphone market. Apple maintained its seventh position in the worldwide mobile device market and held the third position in the worldwide smartphone market. In the smartphone OS market, Android expanded rapidly in Q2, overtaking Apple's iPhone OS to become the third-most popular OS in the world. In the US, it also overtook RIM's OS to become the top smartphone OS in the region."