The fall of a market leader
Poor Motorola. The struggling handset maker can’t seem to get a break. Korean-based Samsung Electronics today took away Moto’s last claim to fame, its title of the largest mobile phone maker in the United States, which it has held since 2004. According to Strategy Analytics, Samsung captured 22.4% of the market share in the U.S., up from 16.2% last year and enough to beat Moto, which only got 21.1% of its home turf, a decline from last year’s 32.7% share.
Strategy Analytics attributed Samsung’s rise to its growing retail presence and high-end cell phone portfolio. But the story is more about Motorola’s fall. Once the worldwide market leader, Moto maintained its own through a strong presence in the U.S. Although Nokia quickly passed it up in worldwide sales, Moto saw a resurgence of interest in the U.S. after the unprecedented success of its RAZR handset, once the most successful handset ever released. Still, after two years, the handset vendor has yet to find a compelling follow up.
In its Q3 earnings, Moto announced plans to focus on Google’s Android operating system, as well as Windows Mobile, but the cards are already stacked against it. Moto admitted in a conference call that Q4 will likely be worse for sales, while the first half of 2009 will be dedicated to rethinking its mobile handset strategy. With the deadline for the mobile device spin-off no longer projected as Q3 of 2009, there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.
Moto wasn’t the only matrix-mix up in the third quarter. While Research In Motion maintained its 10.2% market share compared to Apple’s 5.7%, the iPhone-maker passed up the traditional Smartphone market dominator in phones shipped and took sixth place in the rankings. Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones in Q3, while RIM sold 6.3 million BlackBerrys.
With the exception of Motorola, it was good news for the handset market overall. Mobile phone shipments in the U.S. rose 6.2% to 47.4 million in Q3 even with most in the industry showing signs of the economic crisis. Globally, shipments grew 5.4% in Q3. Nokia now captures 38% of the global market, more than triple its three closest competitors, Moto, Samsung and LG, but only 8.4% of the U.S. market.
