Handset, market shares

Around half of current first time mobile phone users are to be found in China, India, Brazil and Russia. Thus, manufacturers see plenty of scope for further sales in these countries in particular. The average price of handsets continues to fall with Nokia, whose world market share is around 33%, reporting an average unit price of 99 during the Christmas 2005 selling period. The growing markets of India and China are driving the demand for low cost handsets. 

Executives at Ericsson in Sweden only learned of the problem several weeks after the fire. Company culture was less proactive than at its Finnish rival. The bad news was withheld from senior management long after it became clear that delays were becoming serious. By the time that Ericsson realised the magnitude of the problem, it was too late to find alternative sources. Nokia had seized remaining world capacity, and it took nine months for the situation to be rectified. The disruption led to a 3 per cent loss of market share by Ericsson, and contributed in turn to its exit from the phone handset market. 

According to Electronic Buyers News, four US-semiconductor firms dominate the DSP world market. In 1998 Texas Instruments held a 50 % market share of general-purpose DSP s, followed by Lucent Technologies (formerly AT T) with 28 %, Motorola with 12% and Analog Devices Inc. with 10%. Texas Instruments even enjoys a market share of 60 % of the DSP market for wireless handsets. 

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