Data & Research

Mobile handset sales on the slide in Q1 2009

Only Apple and RIM are bucking the trend

Mobile handset sales on the slide in Q1 2009
By , Contributing Editor
The latest round of quarterly financial results from handset manufacturers is nearly done, with only Motorola left to announce its Q1 figures later this month.

Already, though, we're getting a sense of the impact that the economic downturn is having on handset shipments, with only Apple and RIM recording a rise in unit sales compared to Q1 2008.

Aggregating the Q1 2009 handset shipments of Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, Apple and Research In Motion, and comparing them to Q1 2008, reveals a 12.5 per cent drop in unit sales:

 

























































Company 1Q09 Shipments 1Q08 Shipments YoY Change
Nokia 93.2m 115.5m - 19%
Samsung 45.8m 46.3m - 1%
LG 22.6m 24.4m - 7%
Sony Ericsson 14.5m 22.3m - 35%
Motorola tbc tbc tbc
Research In Motion* 7.8m 4.4m + 77%
Apple 3.8m 1.7m + 123%
TOTAL 187.7m 214.6m - 12.5%

*RIM figures based on its financial Q4, which runs from December to February

We will update this story when Motorola announces its latest financials on 30th April.
Stuart Dredge
Stuart Dredge
Contributing Editor

Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)