So finally the recession over verdict has arrived. At least iSuppli Corporation thinks that cell phone industry is out of recession danger, following a quite good Q4 2009 and decent forecast for smartphones segment in 2010. Though number of handsets sold out in 2009 (1.15 billion) are quite lower than 2008 figure (1.2 billion), Q4 2009 has seen 15.5{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} growth in handset shipments as compared to Q3 2009.
Some of interesting stats from report are:-
- Compared to 290 million handset shipped in Q3 2009, Q4 shipped 330 million handsets, which is quite impressive.
- Smartphones- the high end segment of mobile devices is expected to grow 35.5{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} in year 2010.
- Nokia continued to rule handset market with 37.9{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} market share, followed by Samsung which accounts for 20.9{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} market share.
- Chinese Equipment vendor ZTE, which saw 77{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} growth in Q4 as compared to earlier quarter, has become 5th largest mobile handset maker with 4{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} market share and closely following Sony Ericsson (4.4{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3}) at fourth place.
- Mobile handset growth is projected to reach 11.3{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} and industry is expected to sell 1.3 billion units in 2010.
Whatever the forecast says, it is more interesting to see how two Chinese equipment makers has positioned itself into top 7 league of handset makers worldwide. The other Chinese handset maker, Huawei, which saw 82.4{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} growth in Q4, has positioned itself as no 7 mobile handsets maker. Recently, we also saw Huawei piping NSN to become second largest telecom equipment maker after Ericsson. The growth of these two Chinese dark-horses is mainly attributed to their cost proposition and their strategies are very successful in emerging Asian economies.
If you look at the chart of mobile handset makers worldwide, then you will also see one more interesting fact; five out of top seven handset makers are from Asia. Except Nokia & Motorola, the handset segment is completely dominated by Asian handset makers. ZTE, which recently revealed its ambitious plans, has certainly posed itself as challenger to top handset giants in the industry. There’re too many challengers to Nokia’s crown now. Haven’t I told you; LePhone is coming?
