US Consumer Phone Sales Decline 22 Percent In Q1; BlackBerry Enters The Top Five: Report
The shaky economy is starting to show up in U.S. phone sales. In the first quarter, consumer phone sales reached 31 million handsets, falling 22 percent compared to the year-ago period. For the first time, the NPD Group said sales fell between the busy holiday quarter and the first quarter. Despite this, the phones being sold today are higher-end compared to the year ago period, with smartphones comprising 17 percent of all phone sales, a 10 percent increase. Two of the big features being sold are Bluetooth at 79 percent of all phones and music-playing capabilities at 60 percent. The struggling Motorola (NYSE: MOT) maintained its No. 1 position, however, its share fell to 27 percent in the period from 35 percent a year ago. Likely to Apple’s (NSDQ: AAPL) chagrin, for the first time RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) BlackBerry improved its ranking, edging out Sanyo as the fifth-largest manufacturer. Apple didn’t make the list.
Here’s the breakdown:
—Motorola 27 percent
—Samsung 18 percent
—LG (SEO: 066570) 17 percent
—Nokia (NYSE: NOK) 8 percent
—RIM BlackBerry 5 percent
Posted In: Gadgets, Research & Metrics, Companies, Apple, Nokia, RIM, Samsung, blackberry
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Comments (12)
May 20, 2008 10:15 AM
Nokia is the leader in every market except for US and Japan.
There is something seriously wrong with the US
May 20, 2008 10:53 AM
Nokia would be #1 in US if Nokia had been able to make CDMA phones without Qualcom and GSM carriers had not specified endless applications that detracted from the experience. MOT and Samsung are willing to do what the carriers want…..
May 20, 2008 11:03 AM
Maybe the rest of the world has the problem, does the word Sheep mean anything?
May 20, 2008 12:07 PM
Funny, Apple doesn’t even come close to making this list but manages to steal 95% of the press on mobile devices.
Long live fanboyism!
May 20, 2008 3:58 PM
Yes interesting comment about Apple. Apple is about a lot of hype. The iPhone has been out for almost a year and so far last I seen sold 5.4 million phones. This is really nothing compared to Nokia. I believe last quarter Apple sold 1.7 million iPhones while BlackBerry sold 2 million but until recently with BlackBerry Bold how often you hear BlackBerry in the news.
May 20, 2008 4:28 PM
Oh come on it’s good to have some thing for Apple to shoot for. Because no matter if you love the iPhone or think it’s a tool from the devil it’s good for the industry as a whole. Apple is kicking them in the butt and letting them know that yes you can make a good phone that does not blow puppy chow. So while Apple may not be selling the most phones they are having a good effect on other phone vendors.
May 20, 2008 4:42 PM
Put it this way ... only the iDiots are claiming world domination for the iPhone ... but the smart crowd knows Apple has made a great start and will continue to be a worthy competitor.
May 20, 2008 11:58 PM
This is my first time on this site so not sure if this is an exception or the rule but it’s a nice change to see commenters that are actually outside the Apple Reality Distortion Field. The amount of Apple fanboyism you encounter throughout the Web is ridiculously disproportionate.
May 30, 2008 2:01 AM
iPhone has only 1 model out yet and already be a strong competitor in mobile phone market….whereas Nokia, Motorola has gazillions of phone out there….
BlackBerry has recently improve their phone models…....and also slowly grabbing Nokia and Motorola’s market…
Feb 2, 2009 4:43 AM
R iPhone has NOT/ only 1 model 1
Apr 3, 2009 1:57 AM
OMG
Apr 15, 2009 4:09 AM
Althought Apple doesn’t even come close to making this list,I still support it, I think the quaility of Apple products is NO.1.