Samsung rises in cell sales: "We're No. 2!"

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[b]Samsung rises in cell sales: "We're No. 2!"[/b]
[font=\"Arial\"][i]South Korea's Samsung Electronics overtook Motorola as the world's second-biggest mobile phone maker in the third quarter as the market continued to boom, a survey showed on Wednesday.[/i]

Research group Gartner said Samsung sold 22.98 million phones to consumers, giving it a 13.8 percent market share, compared with sales of 22.39 million cell phones by Motorola, which was 13.4 percent of the market.

Gartner, one of the top two market researchers in the mobile phone industry, was forced to publish its quarterly statistics a day earlier than planned after the leak of key numbers by industry sources.

Motorola, whose Chief Executive Ed Zander told Reuters last month he wants his company to become the world's biggest handset maker, lost more than two points compared with the second quarter market share of 15.8 percent.

Samsung advanced from 12.1 percent in the second quarter, as consumers continued to snap up its fold-away models with integrated cameras and other advanced features. It also entered the mass market with cheap phones in growing markets like China. "It remains neck and neck between Motorola and Samsung for second place. The inventory Motorola built at the end of this quarter puts it in a good position to fight back for second position in the fourth quarter," said Gartner analyst Ben Wood.

Motorola should benefit from new models which have just arrived in shops, such as the ultra-thin Razr model.

"The Razr is a good indication of what Motorola can do," Wood said.

Unlike other research groups, Gartner measures sales to consumers, which are the best indication of end-demand. Rivals measure sales to distributors and carriers, and did not register the Samsung-Motorola swap when they published last month.

Nokia recovers, a bit
Gartner also said the market share of the world's biggest handset maker, Nokia, recovered to 30.9 percent, from 29.7 percent in the second quarter.

That figure, however, is still significantly below year-ago levels when it had 34.2 percent. Early this year, the Finnish behemoth lost customers due to a poor lineup. It has addressed the problem with steep price cuts and new product introductions which have started to bear fruit.

Fourth-place Siemens ended at 7.6 percent, up from 6.9 percent, despite a recall of its new 65 range of models, which pushed the business into a loss in the quarter.

"It was a big surprise. The recall affected a lot fewer phones than people had expected. They doubled the unit sales volume in North America," Wood said.

In another victory for South Korea, LG Electronics overtook Japanese-Swedish Sony Ericsson as the world's No 5. handset maker.

LG climbed to a 6.7 percent market share, up from 6 percent in the second quarter, while Sony Ericsson slipped slightly to 6.4 percent in the third quarter from 6.6 percent.

But compared with year-ago periods, both companies had gained significant market share on the back of advanced phones. LG was expanding its relations with telecom carriers through foldaway models and high-speed mobile phones, while Sony Ericsson has carved out a niche in integrating consumer electronics from Sony, such as cameras, games and music players.

"Both are growing. The Sony Ericsson brand is growing in stature, and LG was able to take over fifth place as a result of big deals with CDMA operators in North America," Wood said.

Booming demand in the third quarter--a total 167 million phones ended up in the hands of consumers--meant the $100 billion-a-year handset industry was surely on track to ship 650 million cell phones in 2004, Wood said.

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