Motorola Soars as Mobile-Phone Market Surges in Q4

Motorola Soars as Mobile-Phone Market Surges in Q4

EL SEGUNDO, California, February 1/PRNewswire/ -- A strong performance by Motorola Inc. set the pace for the worldwide
mobile-phone market in the fourth quarter of 2004, as global shipments hit a
record level, according to iSuppli Corp.


Mobile phone shipments rose to 195 million units in the fourth quarter,
up 14.7 percent from 170 million in the third quarter. This represents an
all-time high for quarterly mobile-phone shipments. Shipments in the fourth
quarter were 11.1 percent greater than the previous high of 175.5 million
units in the fourth quarter of 2003, according to iSuppli.


The fourth quarter capped what had been a robust 2004 for the
mobile-phone market. Propelled by strong upgrade sales and consumer demand
for new models, mobile-phone shipments rose to 703 million units in 2004, up
23.3 percent from 570 million in 2003.


While most of the major mobile-phone makers enjoyed strong growth in the
fourth quarter, number-two handset supplier Motorola posted the strongest
performance of all, with a quarterly increase in unit sales of 36.5 percent.


Motorola had the hot new phone models during the fourth quarter,
including the Razr V3, whose thin form factor has proven to be wildly popular
among consumers. While third-ranked mobile-phone maker Samsung Electronics
had threatened Motorola's second-place position in the third quarter, the
Korean electronics giant actually suffered a 7 percent quarterly decrease in
shipments in the fourth quarter. This solidified Motorola's hold on the
second rank.


Number-one player Nokia grabbed 33.9 percent of global unit shipments in
the fourth quarter, its highest quarterly market share since the fourth
quarter of 2002. Throughout 2004, Nokia released a variety of higher-end
phones, allowing the company to increase its average pricing for the quarter.
Nokia even released its first flip phone, a model type that it lagged all of
its competitors in releasing.


iSuppli is raising its forecast for 2005 to 740 million units, up 5.3
percent from 2004. For a complete version of this press release, including
iSuppli's estimates of quarterly and annual shipments, please visit:
http://www.isuppli.com/news/default.asp?id=3928&m=2&y=2005.



For more information on this release, contact Jonathan Cassell at
+1-408-654-1714 or at jcassell@isuppli.com.



iSuppli Corp. is the global leader in electronic component and display
industry intelligence. For more information, visit
http://www.isuppli.com/about/index.asp




Web site: http://www.isuppli.com/about/index.asp
Web site: http://www.isuppli.com/news/default.asp?id=3928&m=2&y=2005





Source: iSuppli Corp.

Jonathan Cassell of iSuppli Corp., +1-408-654-1714, jcassell@isuppli.com


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