Nokia sales up; LG bumped by Sony-Ericsson

Nokia today posted second-quarter sales gains in all of its divisions, boosted its profit and held onto its impressive handset global market share, but the specter of a newly revitalized Motorola looms behind it. Meanwhile LG Electronics gave up No. 4 handset vendor slot to fast-growing Sony Ericsson on lackluster handset shipment and disappointing financials.

Nokia shipped 78.4 million handsets between April 1 and June 30, which, along with gains in its networks and multimedia divisions, generated Euro 9.81 billion (U.S. $12.3 billion) in revenues, a 22% increase over last year’s second quarter. Nokia estimated its own share of 230 million handsets shipped in the quarter as 34%, a l% decrease over last quarter. Though Nokia has maintained fairly steady market share in the growing handset market in the last year, ranging from 33% to 35%, and enjoyed a 29% gain in shipments year-over-year, it definitely seems to be feeling pressure from Motorola, which has almost double its own share in the last year. Motorola shipped 51.6 million handsets in the second quarter, a 53% increase over last year, and by its own estimates gained another point of market share since the first quarter to come in with 22% of global volumes.

While Nokia may be holding its own against Motorola, the other top vendors didn’t fare so well. LG early today reported it shipped 15.3 million handsets last quarter, a big increase over the 12.1 million units it shipped a year earlier, but still a loss of momentum compared to the 15.6 million that left its factories in the first quarter. Meanwhile Samsung saw its phone volumes drop 8% from the previous quarter and 4% from the previous year, coming it at 26.3 million units.

The only top handset maker not to falter was Sony Ericsson. Off the success of its Walkman line, the joint Swedish-Japanese venture shipped 15.7 million units, allowing it to just overtake LG for the No. 4 handset maker slot.