World's Big Five handset makers suffer but iPhone shrugs off the recession

The research house says that each one of the world's Top Five handset makers reported reduced sales in the period. However, perhaps the most significant measure of change is the market share scoreboard.

In Q1 2008, Nokia, the world's leading handset manufacturer, had a market share of 41 per cent. By Q1 this year it was down 3 per cent to 38 per cent. Meanwhile, the world's Number Two, Samsung, despite lower sales than reported a year ago, upped its market share from 16 per cent in 2008 to 19 per cent this year. LG's fortunes remained static. Last year its market share was 9 per cent and it is the same this year. Elsewhere, Motorola, now a shadow of its former self, continued to lose market share. It now stands at just 6 per cent, down 4 per cent from the 10 per cent reported this time last year. Sony Ericsson too is having a torrid time and its market share has declined from 8 per cent in Q1 2008 to 5.9 per cent for the same period in 2009.

Strategy Analytics says Q1 2009 was the worst the industry has experienced since Q3, 2001 - and that was at the height of the last telecoms recession that kicked-in following the implosion of the dot.com bubble in 2000/2001.

In terms of actual sales, Motorola shifted 14.7 million handsets in the quarter, half of what it achieved a year ago, whilst Sony Ericsson sold 14.5 million, a 35 per cent reduction on what it achieved in Q1, 2008.

LG sold 24.4 million units, equivalent to a 7 per cent fall while Samsung shipped 46.4 million handsets, a decline of just 1 per cent year-on-year.

However, above the noise the "traditional" Big Five manufacturers gnashing their teeth and rending their loincloths can be heard the fat purrs of satisfaction from Apple. The iPhone continues to go from strength to strength, posting a 123 per cent sales increase even in the depths of the recession.