Apple cool-aid doesn't kick ass, Nokia does [0]. A slew of
wireless, mobile, and gadgetry news, not the least of which
is Ericcson and Qualcom settle their differences [1], Apple
ponders it's handholding strategy [2],
Sponsored by
03.25.99
By Jeffrey S. Young
uick. What company sold the most
cellular phones in the world last year? If
you thought like an American-centrist
and blurted out Motorola, think again.
The giant radio and cellular pioneer had a very
bad year in 1998 and, for the first time since it
helped invent the wireless and radio
businesses, found itself in second place in
market share. With 163 million phone
handsets sold worldwide, Nokia had an
estimated 30% market share versus
Motorola's slightly lower percentage,
according to the Yankee Group.
1998 Combined Digital and
Analog U.S.
Mobile Phone Market Share
Source: Yankee Group
The worldwide leader in the cell phone game
is now Helsinki, Finland-based Nokia Corp.
(nyse: NOKa), with sales of $14.5 billion
(Finnish markka 79.2 billion), total, $8.3
billion of that in cellular phones. This is a
51% jump in total sales over the previous year
and a 74% growth in cellular phone sales
alone. Worse, for both Motorola and its
traditional big competitor, Swedish LM
Ericsson, the once tiny Finnish company is
growing at a pace that is many times the clip
of its two colleagues. Motorola's mobile
phone sales rose year to year by 5% ($12.5
billion), and Ericsson's were up a modest 7%
($5.6 billion in 1998). Of the three, only
Motorola includes cellular infrastructure
sales--towers, transmitters and switches--in
its segment reporting, and once that is backed
out the company is for the first time trailing
its Finnish competitor.
The worldwide leader
in the cell phone game
is now Helsinki,
Finland-based Nokia
Corp.
[0] http://www.forbes.com/tool/html/99/mar/0325/feat.htm
[1] http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/009651.htm
[2] http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,34215,00.html