European Mobile Phone Market

According to IDC, the Western European mobile phone market grew by 7% in 2Q06 to over 41m units shipped. It is a pretty good result in a region given as saturated and where mobile penetration is over 100% in several countries. Growth is mainly driven by WCDMA handsets (21% of sales) and by healthy renewal cycles driven by highly compelling features. Nokia shipped 14.5m units and increased its market share to 35% in 2Q06. Motorola shipped about 7m units (+21%) giving it a 17% market share. Samsung did not perform well with shipment down 16%, fueling a slip in market share to 12% (-4 points). Sony Ericsson performed well with +11% in shipments to 4.5m units, as well as BenQ Siemens (+17%).