Motorola and Samsung Boost Global First Quarter Cell Phone Market

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Motorola and Samsung Boost Global First Quarter Cell Phone Market

6:40 am on May 8, 2006 | Category: Business, Mobile Devices, Cell Phones

Handset makers, Motorola and Samsung have somehow managed to defy the normal slowdown in cell phone sales that comes with the first quarter of each year.

Mobile phone shipments worldiwde normally drop off in the three months following the robust holiday season. This year, however, the deceleration was a relatively subdued 6.3% below Q4, largely due to the success of the #2 and #3 handset makers.

Motorola managed to grab 21% of the global handset market in Q1 compared to 18.4% in the final quarter of 2005. Samsung Electronics, meanwhile, took a 13.2% market share, compared to 11.2% in last year’s final months.

Overall cell phone shipments increased by 26.1% over the first quarter of 2005, causing industry research firm, iSuppli to increase its annual forecast for 2006 end-of-year cell phone sales.