Nokia, Samsung gain handset share from Motorola

The second quarter saw a definite shift in handset sales as phone makers continued to gain ground at rival No. 2 manufacturer Motorola’s expense, according to research from Gartner.

Gartner’s analysis found that Nokia sold nearly 100 million handsets in the second quarter, up from 77.7 million in the same quarter last year. Samsung’s sales rose from 25.8 million to 36.2 million. Some of those increases are attributable to a larger handset market this year: units shipped last quarter rose to 270.9 million units, up 17.4% from a year earlier. But much of those gains came from Nokia, Samsung and others poaching market share directly from the ailing Motorola. Motorola’s Q2 handset sales plummeted from 50.5 million to 39.5 million in one year, dropping its global market share from 21.9% to 14.6%, Gartner found.

Gartner analysts said Motorola suffered from weak demand all quarter, and much of its efforts in the spring were focused on reducing inventory in key regions by discounting its phones. Though its inventory is under better control, Gartner doesn’t expect Motorola to start gain back lost ground until substantial changes are made to its “dated” product portfolio.

Motorola still holds onto the No. 2 slot, but just barely, and its earlier hopes of challenging Nokia for the No. 1 slot are all but dashed. Nokia gained 3.2 percentage points of global share, giving it a 36.9% market share. Meanwhile Samsung is little more than a percentage point shy of passing Motorola with a 13.4% overall share. The No. 4 and No. 5 handset makers also made gains. Sony Ericsson jumped from 6.6% market share to 9%, though it has been making steady and significant gains for the last several years before Motorola stumbled. LG Electronics saw a small increase in share from 6.3% to 6.8%, according to Gartner.