MobileMonday Global

^{APAC 46, EMEA 37, America 17 percent} Smart mobile grew 39% in Q1

Asia Pacific APAC remains the largest region for smart mobile devices in the first quarter 2007. It made up 46 percent of the global market, compared to 37 percent for EMEA and 17 percent for the Americas. Market research company Canalys puts total worldwide shipments at 23.2 million units in Q1 2007, up 39 percent from the 16.7 million shipped in the same quarter one year ago.

The latest APAC smart mobile device market estimates from Canalys reveal the continuing rise of converged devices (smart phones and wireless handhelds) in the region, with more than 10 million units shipping in a quarter for the first time. Canalys research suggests that 10.1 million smart phones shipped in Q1 2007, along with 435,000 wireless handhelds and less than 150,000 handhelds.

Nokia retained its lead in APAC, shipping an estimated 4.9 million smart phones in the quarter. Success was driven largely by its Symbian S60-based Nseries consumer-oriented devices.

Sharp leapt into second place from fourth last quarter, with impressive year-on-year growth of 50 percent. Fujitsu followed in third with similar growth, ahead of Motorola and Mitsubishi, the latter doing enough to oust Sony Ericsson from the fifth position it held last quarter.

The volumes for several of these vendors come from Symbian smart phones shipping with NTT DoCoMo in Japan. This market has its own distinctive characteristics in what is a highly fragmented region.

Motorola's success was still driven by its Linux smart phones, primarily in mainland China, with the majority of shipments still being the Ming model. The demand for products around the Chinese New Year holidays helped to boost growth of smart mobile devices in the Greater China region by nearly 50 percent year-on-year.

Over the next few years, high growth in the APAC region is expected to come from several under-penetrated markets, including India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

India third after Japan ja Greater China

Canalys estimates that India is already the third largest market in the region after Japan and Greater China, accounting for 6 percent of APAC smart mobile device shipments in Q1 2007.

Sony Ericsson dropped out of the top five into sixth place this quarter, despite 239 percent unit growth year-on-year. This still represented a 25 percent sequential decline, contributed to by a large fall in UIQ device volumes resulting from channels still being satiated from the Q4 2006 influx and a lack of focus on smart phones as attention was diverted to its wider portfolio, particularly the Walkman branded models.

"Compared to the Americas and EMEA, the APAC region still has relatively low smart mobile device volume coming from models positioned for professional, rather than consumer, use," said Canalys senior analyst Rachel Lashford. Canalys estimates that such devices accounted for 17 percent, or 1.8 million, of all shipments in the region in Q1 2007, compared to 30 percent in EMEA and 89 percent in the Americas.

RIM goes pro

"Vendors just outside the top six, such as RIM and Dopod, are seeing growing success with their professional-focused devices. Both have been boosted by expanding portfolios of new devices and increasing regional presence.”

“RIM continues to foster new operator partnerships around the region, and Dopod has increased its country presence over the past six months in South East Asia and India," Lashford added.

Dopod's subsidiaries outside China are expected to be acquired soon by HTC, as the Taiwanese vendor continues along the path of establishing itself as a global brand.

APAC total smart mobile device market shares
Vendor (top 4)	Q1 2007 Shipments	Market share Q107, %	Q1 2006 Shipments	Market share Q106, %	Growth y/y
Nokia	2 951 450	46.20 %	3,489,880	45.80 %	41.50 %
Sharp	1 076 470	13.40 %	951,410	12.50 %	49.90 %
Fujitsu	689 410	10.10 %	725,320	9.50 %	48.30 %
Motorola	610 020	9.40 %	664,540	8.70 %	51.10 %
Others	509 210	20.90 %	1,795,010	23.50 %	24.50 %
Total	1 583 480	100.00 %	7,626,160	100.00 %	40.00 %

Source: Canalys estimates: Smart mobile device market: handhelds, wireless handhelds, smart phones

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