Mobile phone sales down six pct in second quarter

Worldwide mobile phone sales fell by 6.1 percent in the second quarter from a year ago but smartphone sales were up sharply in the period, market research firm Gartner reported Wednesday.

Gartner said worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 286.1 million units in the second quarter compared with 304.7 million units during the same quarter last year.

Sales of smartphones, which include Nokia's high-end models, the Apple iPhone and the Blackberry from Research in Motion (RIM), increased by 27 percent in the same period to 40.9 million units, it said.

"Despite the challenging market, some devices sold well as consumers who would usually have purchased standard midrange devices either cut back to less expensive handsets or moved up the range to get more features for their money," Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, said in a statement.

Nokia remained the worldwide mobile phone leader on sales of 105.4 million units in the quarter but its market share declined to 36.8 percent from 39.5 percent a year ago, Gartner said.

Samsung was next on sales of 55.4 million units, increasing its market share to 19.3 percent from 15.2 percent a year ago.

LG was third on sales of 30.4 million units, giving it a market share of 10.7 percent compared with 8.8 percent a year ago.

Motorola's slump continued as its market share fell from 10.0 percent a year ago to 5.6 percent on sales of 15.9 million units.

Sony Ericsson's market share also declined, to 4.7 percent from 7.5 percent on sales of 13.5 million units.

Nokia was the market leader in the smartphone sector as well on sales of 18.4 million units, giving it a 45 percent market share, down from 47.4 percent a year ago.

RIM was next on sales of 7.6 million smartphones, an 18.7 percent share compared with 17.3 percent a year ago.

Apple, which unveiled its new iPhone 3G S in the second quarter, was third on sales of 5.4 million units incrasing its market share to 13.3 percent from just 2.8 percent a year ago.

Gartner said that the much-hyped Palm Pre was 10th in the smartphone category on second-quarter sales of 205,000 units.

"This device attracted a lot of media attention but showed mixed results at the cash register," said Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner. "Gartner remains concerned about its ability to gain traction outside the US market, where its brand is less strong."