Credit crunch causes mobile users to change upgrade plans

Mobile application developer GetJar has just published the results of its first Mobile Attitudes poll, which shows that mobile phone users around the world are delaying plans to upgrade or buy new handsets because of the global economic crisis. 78% of users worldwide are delaying plans to upgrade or buy a new mobile phone, and 76% are cutting the amount they spend on mobile usage. When asked whether they’d reduced spending on mobile phones in the previous 12 months, more than half hadn’t reduced their spending at all or had cut it by less than 10%. [MobileAttitudes.org]

Nokia's quarterly figures are down

Nokia has reported its figures for Q3 2008. Revenue from sales is down 5% year-on-year and down 7% from the previous quarter. Profits are down rather more; it also says its share of the mobile market has slipped from 40% in Q2 2008 to 38%, as it had warned in September. However, it expects its mobile device market share in the fourth quarter of 2008 to be no worse. [Sources: Press release; Mobile News]

27,000 iPhones sold in UK every week?

There are reports that Apple is selling 27,000 3G iPhones every week in the UK, giving it around a 5% market share. Figures were said to be up to 50,000 each week immediately after the new iPhone launched in July. [Source: MacNN.com]

Nokia says third quarter of 2008 will be worse than expected

Nokia has revised its forecast for mobile sales this year. It says its market share in the third quarter of 2008 is expected to be lower than in the second quarter of 2008, although it had previously expected sales for the two quarters to be similar. It still aims to increase its market share for 2008. It says there are a number of reasons for the drop, including:

• Nokia's decision to not meet the aggressive pricing of some competitors,
• overall market competition,
• the temporary impact of a slower ramp-up of a mid-range Nokia device.

That last one's open to interpretation in a number of ways, isn't it? [Press release]

Alcatel sales up 60%

Mobile phone manufacturer Alcatel shipped 6.7 million units in the first half of this year, up 60% on the same period in 2007. The company, which is controlled by Chinese firm TCL Communication, also saw its revenue increase by 13% and net profit go up from HK$2 million to HK$112 million (£7.7 million). [Source: Mobile News]

Mobile phone sales to grow 11% in 2008

Worldwide mobile phone sales are expected to increase 11% in 2008, reaching 1.28 billion units, according to figures from researchers at Gartner. Mobile phone sales in Western Europe are forecast to reach 188 million units, up 1.5%, compared with the Asia/Pacific region where sales are predicted to reach 472.5 million in 2008, a 17.9% increase from 2007. Japan is expected to experience a drop in sales of 9.1%. [Press release]

Global mobile sales up 15%

Strategy Analytics says 297 million mobile phones were shipped worldwide in the second quarter of 2008, a 15% year-on-year increase. Perhaps surprisingly, the worldwide growth rate is higher than it was at any time during 2007. [Report summary]

Motorola announces profit

Motorola's second-quarter results show that the company has made a profit of $4 million and is maintaining its market share with sales of over 28 million handsets. [Press release]

LG sales up

In a marked contrast with Sony Ericsson's recent results, LG's mobile phone sales have increased by 45% to help the company’s quarterly profits rise by 84% to 706.9 billion Won (£346 million). [Source: Bloomberg.com]

Worldwide mobile sales up but Western Europe is down

Researchers at Gartner say that mobile phone sales were up 13.6% in the first quarter of 2008, although figures in Western Europe were down - which is the first time this has happened since Gartner began tracking in 2001. Worldwide sales reached 294.3 million handsets in Q1 2008, although quarterly sales of mobile phones in Western Europe were down 16.4% year-on-year. Nokia's market share slipped slightly to 39.1%, Samsung held on to the number 2 position with 14.4%, while Motorola's share slipped to 10.2%, keeping it in third place. [Press release]

Mobile phone shipments up 14.3% in Q1

Market analysis company IDC says mobile phone shipments in the first quarter of 2008 were up 14.3% from the same period in 2007 although, as expected, they'd fallen from the previous quarter. Over 291 million mobiles were shipped worldwide in the first three months of this year. [Press release]

Apple sells 1.7 million iPhones in quarter

Apple has announced its results for its financial quarter ending 29th March 2008. It sold 1,703,000 iPhones during those three months. The company said it's still committed to selling 10 million iPhones during 2008. [Press release; conference call]

Sony Ericsson warns that sales are slowing

Sony Ericsson says "moderating sales growth of mobile phone units is expected to negatively impact net sales and net income before tax for the first quarter of 2008." In particular, it's selling fewer mid-to-high end phones and has suffered component shortages for some mid-priced phones. Sales for the first quarter of 2008 are expected to be lower than those in 2007, although the company says it still aims to be one of the world's top three manufacturers by 2011. Its first quarterly report for 2008 will be published in April. [Source: press release]

Vodafone to cut 450 jobs

Vodafone says it's going to cut 450 management jobs, mainly from its Newbury HQ, and will create 460 new retail, sales and service positions. The company says this will help it focus on data sales and other services. It's also planning to add an extra 30 jobs to its online business. [Source: Reuters.com, CNNMoney.com]

O2 man moves to Virgin Mobile

Former O2 UK general manager of channel support Ian Driver, who left his previous role in November last year, has been appointed to Virgin Mobile's indirect sales channel. [Source: Mobile News]

Worldwide mobile sales up 16% in 2007

Research company Gartner says worldwide sales of mobile phones to end-users exceeded 1.15 billion units in 2007, a 16% per cent increase from 2006. People in emerging markets buying their first phone, particularly in China and India, provided much of the growth. Sales in 2008 are expected to continue increasing but at a reduced rate of 10%. Nokia ended 2007 as the leading global manufacturer, achieving 40% of sales in Q4 and 37.8% for the entire year. [Press release]

Official iPhone figures from Germany

Telecoms.com reports that T-Mobile Germany has released details of its Apple iPhone sales. It's sold 70,000 iPhones since the handset launched in November, which is being compared with unofficial reports of 70,000 sold in France on the France Telecom network and 200,000 in the UK on O2.

Mobile industry has a record Q4 2007

Analysts at IDC say 334 million mobile phones were produced worldwide during the fourth quarter of 2007 - a new industry record - although overall growth during 2007 has slowed slightly. 1.144 billion devices were shipped in 2007, which represents year-on-year growth of 12.4%. Nokia was the leading manufacturer, with Samsung overtaking Motorola to move into second place. Sony Ericsson was fourth and LG was fifth. [Press release]

Nokia announces Q4 2007 figures with 40% market share

Following on the heels of Samsung and Sony Ericsson, Nokia has just released its fourth quarter figures for 2007 - and says it now has a 40% share of the world's mobile phone market (up from 39% in the third quarter).

It sold 133.5 million handsets during those three months, up 27% on Q4 2006. Net profit was up 44% quarter-on-quarter to €1.835 billion (£1.37 billion).

Motorola has also released quarterly figures, but they seem to be heading in the other direction - profits have dropped and mobile device sales are down.

December is top mobile month

More people buy a new mobile phone in December than in any other month, according to a report from M:Metrics. 15% of all European customers who acquired a new phone in 2006 did so in December - that's 90% more than in an average month. It's a similar picture in the USA, where 12% of users bought in December - up 40% on the monthly average. [Source: WirelessWeek.com]