Mobile Phone Shipments Surge in Q4; Motorola and Nokia Shine in 2005

(Business News & Technology News, 21 Feb 2006)

Mobile-phone shipments in the fourth quarter of 2005 reached a record level of 241.5 million units, driving up shipments for the entire year to 812.5 million units. These final shipment numbers slightly exceeded iSuppli's forecast, which called for 239 million mobile-phone shipments in the fourth quarter and 810 million units for all of 2005. The fourth-quarter total represented the highest level of quarterly shipments in the history of the mobile-phone business, easily exceeding the previous peak of 200 million unit shipments in the fourth quarter of 2004.

Shipments in the fourth quarter rose by 15 percent compared to 210 million in the third quarter. This marked the highest sequential quarterly growth in mobile-phone shipments in two years, due to robust sales during the holiday season.

Leading mobile-phone maker Nokia Corp. posted the strongest market-share growth of all handset OEMs in the fourth quarter and for the year. Nokia in the fourth quarter increased its share of unit shipments to 34.7 percent, up 3 percentage points from 31.7 percent the third quarter. For all of 2005, Nokia gained 3.5 percentage points to attain a market share of 32.6 percent.

Motorola Inc. also posted a strong performance in 2005. For the full year, Motorola achieved an 18 percent market share, up 3.3 percentage points from 14.7 percent in 2004.
Much of Motorola's success can be attributed to the RAZR, the company's best-performing mobile phone, and indeed one of the most popular products in the history of the wireless handset business, Smyser said. This single product accounted for approximately 30 percent of Motorola's fourth-quarter mobile-phone shipments.
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