Gartner says mobile handset sales down in 4Q08

According to research firm Gartner, the current economic downturn is having a negative effect on the global sale of mobile handset, with a 5% decline in global handset sales in the last quarter of 2008.

Even though global handset sales grew by a total of 6% during 2008, Gartner predicts that sales will remain unstable until at least 2010. Nokia remains the leader in market share with more than 470 million handsets sold during 2008, representing around 38% of the global market.

In the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, sales of mobile handsets grew only marginally in 2008 with an increase of 2.5%. However, sales in 4Q 2008 decreased by 3.8% compared to the same period in 2007.

Annette Zimmerman, senior research analyst at Gartner says: “Reduced consumer confidence, combined with lower subsidies from operators, discouraged users from upgrading their current device. Instead, users chose less-expensive devices when buying a new phone, or held on to their existing ones.”

All top 5 mobile phone vendors (Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson and Motorola) saw a decline in sales in the fourth quarter. Gartner estimates that mobile handset sales for 2008 totaled in excess of 1.2 billion units.

More information on trends in handset sales can be found in the Gartner report “Dataquest Insight: Market Share for Mobile Devices, 4Q08 and 2008″, or at www.gartner.com.