Q1 Global Handset Market Share – Top 5 Vendors
Most U.S. operators are still adding subscribers, but the handset makers worldwide are feeling the squeeze of the recession in a big way.
According to Strategy Analytics, global mobile handset shipments fell 13 percent year-over-year in the first quarter – the fastest rate of decline since the modern cell phone industry began in 1983. Total global handset shipments tallied 245 million units.
IDC reported slightly lower global handset shipments, tallying 244.8 million units shipped in the first quarter of 2009, or 15.8 percent lower than the 290.8 million units shipped in the first quarter of 2008.
Worldwide, In-Stat is forecasting a 20.5 percent drop in handset shipments for 2009 compared with 2008.
| Top 5 Best-Selling Smartphones in Q1 |
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Survey: Gamers Still Game
In a survey of AT&T customers, one-third of mobile gamers said they were “somewhat or very likely” to purchase a game for their cell phone in 2009. The survey was conducted by Information Solutions Group 
exclusively for PopCap Games. Here are some other findings:
• Just over a quarter (26 percent) said they’ve paid for a mobile game.
• The top factors influencing participants’ decisions to buy a mobile game were “game is in a genre I like” (61 percent), “price of the game is reasonable” (52 percent) and “played demo version and liked it” (50 percent).
• Survey respondents who have purchased one or more mobile games have purchased an average of 7.2 mobile games; 26 percent said they’d purchased four or more games in the past year, with those newer to mobile gaming being more likely to purchase games for the phone.
• Among respondents who indicated they would not be buying a mobile game in 2009, the top three reasons for that decision were: “happy with free games” (24 percent), “none of the games interest me enough to buy” (15 percent), and “lack of time to play” (14 percent).
At A Glance
• U.S. households with only cell phones during the last half of 2008: 20 percent. In the first six months of 2003, only 3 percent of households were wireless only, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Worldwide telecom service revenue from equipment vendor services to service providers hit $62 billion in 2008, up 17 percent from 2007, and will continue to increase as service providers outsource more tasks, reports Infonetics Research. Nokia Siemens Networks gained market share in 2008, while other top vendors worldwide maintained or dropped a point or two.
• LTE will drive $1.3 billion in North American handset revenue in 2013, predicts In-Stat.
• Despite the weakened state of the world economy, RFID markets are not contracting, according to ABI Research. Forecasts suggest that even with the ailing automotive vertical included, the RFID market should see 11 percent growth between 2009 and 2010. Remove the deeply depressed automotive immobilizer numbers, which are directly tied to vehicle production, and the growth rate jumps to almost 16 percent.