Nokia’s share of both the handset and smartphone markets continues to fall, according to Gartner figures.
Worldwide mobile phone sales in Q3 totaled 308.9 million units up 0.1% from 2008, while 41 million smartphones were sold, a 12.8% increase, Gartner said.
Nokia’s share of handset sales fell to 1.5 percentage points to 36.7%, while Samsung and LG strengthened their grip on the no.2 and no.3 spots respectively. Motorola’s market share is now down to 4.5%, almost half its level a year ago of 8.0%.
Gartner said component shortages contributed to Nokia's declining share and warned that these could continue into the fourth quarter.
In the smartphone market, Nokia has lost ground to both RIM and Apple over the last year. It is down three points to a 39.3% share of the 41.7 million devices sold compared with Q3 2008. RIM is in second place, with 20.8%, up 4.9 points, and Apple third with a 17.1% share, up 4.2 points.
The new Android OS has a 3.5% share of the smartphone market already, Gartner said.
Because of competition at the high-end of the market, Nokia’s average selling price (ASP) remained flat quarter-on-quarter at €62 ($92) even as it rolled out its N97 smartphone, Gartner said.
“Nokia should have strong end-of-year volumes as a result of good mid-tier products like the 5530 and 5230, but consumers seeking to upgrade to a high-end device may look elsewhere over the Christmas holiday sales,” it added.
Gartner research director Carolina Milanesi said ASPs across the segment were flat during the quarter and would face similar pricing pressure in 2010.
She expected total handset sales in 2009 were likely to be flat compared with 2008 rather than show a decline.
”As many vendors and industry watchers call for a decrease in sales into the channel, our sell-through data is showing that 2009 performance will be flat rather than down over 2008,” she said.