Analyst: Cell phone sales will drop in 2009

Worldwide mobile-phone sales will decline next year, the first drop since 2001, as economic growth slows, researcher Gartner Inc. said.

Shipments will fall by a ``low single-digit'' percentage in 2009, the Stamford, Connecticut-based market research company said today in an e-mailed statement.

Consumers in mature and emerging markets have postponed replacement purchases of mobile phones as economic growth slowed, Gartner said. On Nov. 14, Nokia Oyj, the world's largest maker of handsets, predicted industrywide unit sales will shrink next year.

``We are looking at stormy weather in this market,'' Carolina Milanesi, the Egham, England-based research director at Gartner, said in a telephone interview today. ``Even Nokia has now come out'' and predicted a decline in the industry.

Sales will advance 8 percent this year after rising 6 percent in the third quarter, Gartner predicted. Third-quarter growth slowed from 16 percent a year earlier.

Nokia retained the top spot in the third quarter with 38.2 percent market share by unit sales, from 37.8 percent a year earlier and 39.5 percent in the previous three months, according to Gartner. Being the largest mobile-phone company, Nokia is best positioned to weather the slowdown, Garter said

Samsung Electronics Co. in second place increased its share to 17.1 percent from 14.4 percent a year earlier, helped by popular models with touch-screen user interfaces.

Western Europe

Sony Ericsson moved to the third spot even as its market share fell to 8.1 percent from 8.7 percent. The venture owned by Ericsson AB and Sony Corp. is set to suffer more than others from the slowdown because of its dependency on western European market, Milanesi said.

Motorola fell to 8 percent from 13 percent, slipping to fourth place as the U.S. company suffered from a lack of ``compelling products,'' Gartner said.

LG Electronics dropped to fifth place as its market share rose to 7.8 percent from 7 percent after it turned down a contract in India to protect selling prices. The South Korean company's drop may be temporary, according to Milanesi.

Third-quarter sales for the industry totaled 308.5 million units, Gartner said. Unit sales rose in all regions except western Europe and Japan.

Milanesi predicted the market for advanced handsets known as smartphones will continue rising next year. The researcher plans to publish a detailed report on that market next week.