Worldwide mobile phone shipments decline, but Apple does better than expected
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Apr 30, 2009 at 6:14am
Two new reports say mobile phone shipments significantly in the first quarter of the year—though the iPhone has done even better than expected. According to the latest research from the Strategy Analytics research firm, a worldwide economic downturn caused handset shipments to fall at their fastest rate in the industry’s 27-year history.
“Global handset shipments fell to 245 million units during Q1 2009, down a huge 13 percent from 282 million units a year earlier,” says Alex Spektor, analyst at Strategy Analytics. “A global economic downturn and cautious de-stocking by retailers caused the slowdown. Our records indicate that Q1 2009 represented the fastest ever decline in annual shipment growth since the modern cellphone industry began in 1983.”
Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics, adds: “The first quarter of 2009 was an exceptionally tough period. Shipment growth contracted for all the top five major vendors, forcing some of them, such as Nokia, to rein in costs and slash thousands of jobs. However, one bright spot was found among the smartphone specialists. Apple, for example, more than doubled its volumes year-over-year due to healthy demand for its wildly popular 3G iPhone.”
According to Strategy Analytics, Apple shipped a better-than-expected 3.8 million iPhones worldwide in Q1 2009, up a healthy 123 percent from 1.7 million units in Q1 2008. Apple’s 3.8 million iPhone shipments exceeded those of one of its main touchscreen rivals, the Nokia 5800, which recorded slightly lower global volumes of 2.6 million units during the quarter.
Meanwhile, the IDC research group says the worldwide mobile phone market began 2009 with an expected sequential downturn, exacerbated by the challenges of the ongoing worldwide recession. According to IDC’s “Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker,” vendors shipped a total of 244.8 million units in the first quarter of 2009, approximately 15.8 percent lower than the 290.8 million units shipped during 1Q08.
The first quarter of a new year is typically characterized by seasonally lower shipment volumes following a busy holiday quarter with channels clearing out excess inventory. But the 1Q09 decline was especially sharp due to weak end-user demand, currency volatility, and lack of credit for merchants as consumers and the supply chain adapt to the recession.
“That the worldwide mobile phone market started off 2009 with a year-over-year decline highlights just how much the economic recession has affected all industries, including the wireless market,” says Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. “The market continues to adapt to the new economic reality with both vendors and retailers exercising caution to remain profitable. In some cases, this has meant holding less inventory, or even reducing headcount. Fortunately, new features and demand for phones will help the market resist the financial pressure. We expect to see further year-over-year declines worldwide, even as some regions show signs of improvement.”
Leave a comment ⇒
Please post the article topic & comment in our forums. No registration required.
Article Information
Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Digg This
Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 10,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Recent Articles
