Pressure mounts on Motorola

MOTOROLA'S MISERY continues as Samsung pushed it into third place spot amongst handset vendors according to figures released by research firm, IDC.

Samsung took a 13.7 per cent share compared to Motorola's 13.0 per cent. Interestingly IDC says Nokia's share is 37 per cent while Nokia itself put that figure at 38 per cent.

But in terms of sheer numbers, Nokia shipped over 100 million handsets in the last quarter which is more than the combined total for its three nearest competitors.

Most observers are blaming Motorola's poor performance on a lack of decent handsets. Which is strange really because the IQ really rates the Motorizr Z8. This is a Symbian phone using the UIQ interface.

Where Motorola appears to have missed out is in servicing the emerging markets such as Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Ironically Motorola has just passed an important milestone by shipping its 100 millionth Razr phone. So it can make good handsets still.

Significantly, Taiwan's MIC market watcher says, "Due to its continued losses and weak sales of new handset models, Motorola's strategy was to increase the share of the mid-range W series in order to improve its product mix.

However, this strategy did not produce the expected results. Meanwhile, Motorola still regards its ultra value-line models as the key to maintain its market share in emerging markets." In terms of opponents, Sony Ericsson continues to do a sterling job. A lot of this is down the the popularity of its Walkman range of models which represent about one third of all its sales.

By comparison Motorola really missed the boat on the music phone front with the Rokr and its 'crippled' support for Apple's Itunes.

Samsung seems to blame its assumption of the second place spot on its Ultra Edition and Ultra Special handsets.

Interestingly IDC sites Sony Ericsson's decision to start manufacturing in India as a sign that it will continue to hold onto its fourth spot.

Stating the obvious, IDC mentions that the Apple Iphone" has pushed the envelope on industrial design and user interfaces for all vendors."

It also thinks the deal Apple did with AT&T has changed the relationship between hardware manufacturers and the network operators. In the US, perhaps, but we'll have to wait to see what kind of deal it has pulled with the likes of the UK's O2. µ

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