3Q06 cellphone record shipments

With cellphone shipments in 3Q06 reaching 255m units, up 21% yoy and 8% qoq, according to IDC, one billion units shipped in 2006 becomes a strong possibility.

According to Strategy Research, Nokia holds a market share of 34.5%, followed by Motorola with 21%, the Samsung with 12%, Sony Ericsson with 7.7% and LG with 6.4%. Nokia shipped 88m units (+33%) in the quarter and seems on the way to surpass a record 340 million shipments of mobile units in 2006. Motorola shipped 53.7m units (+39%), while Samsung delivered 30.7m units (+16%). Sony Ericsson and LG shipped respectively 19.8m (+42%) and 16.5m units (+6%). Sony Ericsson is therefore the star performer this quarter, adding some 6m units more.

If the market reports great performance in volume, this is not translated in revenues and earnings. Nokia reported shipments up 33%, but sales increased 14% “only” and net proft was down 4%. Motorola also reported volume up 39%, while sales grew 17% and profit was down 45%. Sony Ericsson was one of the very few to increase its ASP (average selling price), thanks to the success of its mid- and high-priced devices. Nokia expects an increase of 15% qoq in 4Q06 mobile phone shipments and asseses global mobile phone volume to be 970m units in 2006.