MobileMonday Global

^{Asia/Pacific and Japan drive worldwide numbers} Mobile phone sales up 14% in Q107

Sales of mobile phones in the first quarter of 2007 reached 257.4 million units, a 14 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Gartner, Inc.

The growth was bolstered by strong demand from key countries in Asia/Pacific, such as China, as well as Japan. Western Europe and North America registered the expected slow down after strong Christmas sales and saw only moderate growth over the same period in 2006.

“With part of the inventory that built up in 2006 cleared in the first quarter of 2007, we remain confident that sales will reach 1.15 billion units for 2007, a 16 percent increase from 2006,” said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices research at Gartner, based in Egham, UK.

Nokia sold close to 92 million mobile phones in the first quarter of 2007 which resulted in a 35.7 percent market share worldwide, a 1.8 percentage point growth compared to the same period in 2006. Nokia’s sales were driven by its multimedia portfolio, which in the quarter accounted for around 8 million units sold into the channel. Nokia’s mid-tier range, which was strengthened at the end of 2006 with the 5200 and 5300, welcomed the addition of the Nokia 6300. The enterprise market looked promising during the first quarter, when close to 1 million Eseries devices were sold into the channel.

Gartner expects Nokia will continue to take advantage of Motorola’s weakness in the quarters to come and maintain its solid performance as its portfolio expands with some interesting new additions such as the 2630 and the Navigator.

Worldwide mobile phone sales to end-users in 1Q07
Company	Sales, 1Q07, millions	Market share, Q107, %	Sales, 1Q06, millions	Market share, Q106, %
Nokia	91.974	35.7	76.247	33.9
Motorola	47.548	18.5	45.678	20.3
Samsung	32.058	12.5	28.128	12.5
Sony Ericsson	21.712	8.4	13.151	5.8
LG	15.967	6.2	14.555	6.5
Others	48.098	18.8	47.075	20.9
Total	257.356	100	224.834	100

Source: Gartner, May 2007;

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