Nokia, world's largest mobile handset manufacturer, witnessed a 4.8 per cent decline in its global market share to 29.3 per cent during the first quarter of 2004 mainly due to the absence of mid-range phones, according to market research firm IDC.
The worldwide market for mobile phones grew by 29 per cent to 152.7 million units in the first quarter of 2004 and the vendors like Motorola and Samsung strengthened their position at Nokia's expense, IDC said in its latest report.
"However, despite the loss in the market share, Nokia remains firmly positioned as the market leader in both mobile phones market and the converged mobile device market," it said.
"With service providers looking for value-added services to add to the revenues, Nokia experienced the sharpest sequential drop of 19.2 per cent to 44.7 million units because of the lack of mid-range colour and camera phones that were growth catalyst for other companies. Nokia's marketshare dropped by 4.8 per cent to 29.3 per cent but it remained the overall leader with year-on-year growth of 17.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2004,'' the research firm said.
IDC said the 2.5G mobile phones will drive market growth for the next several years with sales of 3G mobile phones finally surpassing the 100 million unit mark in 2007.
While Motorola and Samsung have firmly forayed into GSM camera phones, Nokia plans to regain its marketshare through a combination of price discounts and the launch of approximately 40 new handsets, IDC said.
In January-March 2004, Motorola gained 2.7 per cent market share to 16.7 per cent on the back of 51.5 per cent year-on-year increase in shipments driven by GSM camera phones.
Samsung witnessed an increase of 88 per cent year-on-year in shipments to 20 million units and its market share increased to 13.1 per cent.
Fourth biggest mobile phone vendor Siemens' shipment of phones increased 60 per cent year-on-year to 12.8 million units but its market share declined to 8.4 per cent. Sony Ericsson managed to enter the list of top five vendors, but LG is close on its heels.
The nascent market for converged mobile devices posted an year-on-year increase of 85.8 per cent, according to IDC.
The January-March 2004 quarter after the traditional holiday season in the biggest markets of the world, however, saw a sequential decline of 5.9 per cent in mobile phone handset shipments.
IDC expects the worldwide mobile phones market to surpass 595 million units shipped in 2004 with smart phone accounting for 20 million. It said the number of wireless subscribers worldwide are expected to be at 1.5 billion.