iSuppli: Q1 mobile phone shipments fall, Samsung exception among top 5

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 4/23/2007

In what market research firm iSuppli called a seasonally weak performance, Q1 global mobile phone shipments fell by 12.8 percent sequentially, declining to 253 million units, down from 290.1 million in Q4.

The firm noted, however, that such a decline is typical following the peak Q4 buying season. Indeed, four out of the top five mobile phone makers experienced a sequential decrease in unit shipments, iSuppli said.

Going against the grain was Samsung, which posted a 9.1 percent sequential increase in shipments to 34.8 million units during Q1, up from 31.9 million units in Q4. iSuppli said that Samsung, which took third place in the firm's Q1 mobile phone shipment rankings with a market share of 13.8 percent, was the only top five phone brand to increase its unit shipments on a sequential basis in Q1. Samsung had a 10.9 percent market share in Q4's rankings.

Despite the rise in mobile phone shipments, however, Samsung still posted an overall sequential drop in profits and sales for the quarter, with Q1 net profit of $1.71 million on revenue of $15.43 billion -- a 3 percent slide in profit and an 8 percent slide in sales from Q4.

Heading up the firm's Q1 shipment rankings was Nokia Corp., which iSuppli said posted shipments during the period 13.3 percent higher than its two nearest competitors' shipments combined. Even so, the company suffered a 13.6 percent sequential decline in shipments, from Q4's 105.5 million units to Q1's 91.1 million units, causing its market share to decrease to 36 percent, down from 36.4 percent in Q4. While Nokia had its share of financial declines in the quarter, the mobile phone giant bested its competitor Motorola on several fronts in its Q1 financial report starting 2007 off with sales growth year-over-year.

According to iSuppli, second-ranked Motorola posted the biggest shipments drop among the top five mobile phone brands in Q1 with its shipments declining by a whopping 30.9 percent to 45.4 million units, down from 65.7 million in Q4. Motorola had a Q1 market share of 17.9 percent, down from its Q4 market share of 22.6.

In a statement released last week, Motorola's CEO Ed Zander said the company's mobile device business performance was "unacceptable." Overall, the company posted a Q1 operating loss of $366 million, down from Q1 2006's operating earnings of $894 million and down from Q4's operating earnings of $753 million.

Fourth-ranked Sony Ericsson ended Q1 with 21.8 million unit shipments, down 16.2 percent from its Q4 shipments of 26 million. The company had a Q1 market share of 8.6 percent, down from its Q4 market share of 8.9 percent. Fifth-ranked LG Electronics' shipment volumes declined by 6.5 percent sequentially during Q1, and had a Q1 market share of 7 percent, up from its Q4 market share of  6.2 percent.