Nokia leaves competitors for dead as analysts warn of slowdown

Nokia has increased its lead in worldwide sales of mobile phones last year, while most of its major rivals lost ground.

A Gartner Dataquest survey shows that global sales of mobile phones leaped 45 per cent to 412.7 million in 2000, up from 283.6 million for 1999. Nokia grabbed 126.4 million of these sales, an increase of 65.5 per cent. The company increased its market share from 26.9 per cent in 1999 to 30.6 per cent last year. Market share for three other major makers slumped: Motorola fell from 16.9 per cent to 14.6 Ericsson from 10.5 per cent to 10 and Panasonic from 5.5 per cent to 5.2. Both Siemens and Samsung showed small increases with Siemens going up from 6.2 per cent to 6.5 and Samsung from 4.6 to 5 per cent. Analysts are predicting tough times ahead for manufacturers as global capacity catches up with global demand. Bryan Prohm, senior analyst at Gartner Dataquest, said: "The afterburners that propelled several years of consistently high growth rates now suddenly seem to have been switched off. There is some significant stock carry-over to the beginning of 2001, meaning the total number of shipments in 2000 was about six million less than previous estimates." Peter Richardson, principal analyst at Gartner Dataquest, added: "The long-term prospects for the mobile sector look tough. Few manufacturers are able to generate healthy profit margins, placing the necessary investments in next-generation handsets at risk."