Global handset market returns to 10 percent growth in Q4 2009

BOSTON, USA: According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global mobile handset shipments grew 10 percent year-over-year, to reach 324 million units in Q4 2009. This was the cellphone market’s first quarter of positive growth since Q3 2008, signaling an end to the industry’s year-long recession.

Bonny Joy, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics said: “The global mobile handset shipments reached 324 million units during Q4 2009, rising 10 percent from 294 million in Q4 2008. The ten-percent increase was the handset market’s first quarter of positive growth since Q3 2008, signaling an end to the industry’s recession which first began during Q4 2008 and lasted for four quarters.”

Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics, added: “We expect the global handset market to continue its recovery, with shipments growing a forecast 8 percent annually during the first quarter of 2010. Consumers, operators and handset vendors are steadily regaining confidence. However, some major regions, such as South America, are still a little fragile, so it will not always be a smooth recovery and some regions will fare better than others.”

Other findings from Strategy Analytics’ Q4 2009 Global Handset Market Share Update report include:
* Samsung shipped a record 69 million handsets worldwide during the fourth quarter of 2009, up an above-average 31percent from 52.8 million units a year earlier. Samsung maintained its global marketshare at an impressive level of 21 percent. The company surpassed 200 million units during the full-year for the first time in its history;

* Motorola and Sony Ericsson have been the highest-profile casualties of the handset recession, each shedding several points of global marketshare over the past 18 months. Both firms developed inadequate 3G handset portfolios, enabling rivals like LG and Apple to seduce operators with more attractive offerings during 2009;

* Apple shipped a record 8.7 million iPhones worldwide in Q4 2009, for a healthy 2.7 percent marketshare. Apple recently unveiled the iPad multimedia tablet, which will complement the iPhone but may struggle to match the iPhone’s sizeable volumes.Source: Strategy Analytics