Motorola Soars as Mobile-Phone Market Surges in Q4

Motorola Soars as Mobile-Phone Market Surges in Q4

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 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 (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


Source: iSuppli Corp.

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

Web site: http://www.isuppli.com/about/index.asp

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


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