CellPhoneBurn

It seems good news in the cell phone world is in short supply these days. A new report from research firm IDC says that phone shipments will be 1.9% lower in 2009 than in 2008. And there’s plenty more where that came from…

Global mobile phone sales growth is expected to be 7.1% in 2008, and somewhere in negative territory in 2009. One problem is that the so-called emerging markets, where cell phone sales have seriously exploded for the past couple of years, are “maturing.” In other words, the emerging countries are starting to become saturated, and there are less first-time cell phone buyers than before. Not to mention that current phone owners see little reason to upgrade with the global recession.

What with all the recession talk and lackluster earnings from phone makers, it wasn’t much of a surprise to hear that third quarter cell phone shipments fell 0.4% from the previous quarter (Q2), and gained a mere 3.2% compared to last year. But what was interesting, was the new rankings for global market share.

(in order from largest market share to smallest)

Nokia - 39.4%
Samsung - 17.3%
Sony Ericsson - 8.6%
Motorola - 8.5%
LG Electronics - 7.7%