Mobile phone shipments plummeting

Global mobile phone shipments have plummeted this year with 94.4 million units going out in the third quarter of 2001 - down from 104 million for the same period last year.

The 10 per cent fall is blamed on dismal sales in Western Europe, plus repeated delays in the advent of GPRS handsets said analysts from Gartner Dataquest who carried out the research.

Ben Wood, senior analyst for mobile communications at Gartner, said: "In an unprecedented development, shipments actually fell in Western Europe from the second quarter to the third quarter of 2001.

"This was contrary to all past trends and is stark evidence of the market's woes."

Nokia is still top dog with 33.4 per cent of the total market share, yet its shipments fell by almost one million to around 31.5 million.

Motorola managed to pick up some of the slack, with shipments of its handsets rising 2.4 per cent for the quarter to 14.7 million - giving it a market share of 15.7 per cent.

Ericsson took third place, with a market share of eight per cent, with Samsung (7.5 per cent) and Siemens (7.2 per cent) switching places for fourth and fifth spot respectively.