The worldwide mobile phone industry felt the impact of the global financial crisis in the third quarter of 2008 (3Q08) as total handset shipments were down significantly over previous quarters. Mobile phone manufacturers shipped a total of 299.0 million handsets in 3Q08, up 3.2% from last year, and down -0.4% over 2Q08.
The third quarter of the year has historically been a ramp-up quarter as manufacturers load their sales channels with handsets in preparation for the holiday season, producing year-over-year growth rates as high as 20% as a result. This year has not witnessed a similar ramp up, largely due to the current economic situation. Looking forward to the holiday season, mobile phone average selling prices have already begun to drop and marketing campaigns are ramping up, and competition for buyers will remain high as spending will be a concern to consumers. IDC expects tight economic conditions will make 2009 slower and more competitive as well.
Regional Analysis
- In North America, new releases from Apple, Palm, and Research In Motion, along with the highly anticipated release of the HTC G1, pushed the converged mobile device further into the public eye and into users' hands. Conversely, traditional mobile phones were not able to keep up the pace and showed a slight decline from a year ago. Even so, overall growth in the region remained sound heading into 4Q08.
- In Latin America, the mobile phone market posted slower growth than expected, but the converged mobile device market made terrific strides, especially with the official release of the Apple iPhone in key countries. Although the region is widely known as a key emerging market, that has not stopped carriers and vendors from trying to migrate users to higher-end devices and services.
- The EMEA market posted mixed results, with continued downturn in Western Europe due to economic challenges but still strong growth from the converged mobile device market. In neighboring CEMA, vendors showed no sign yet of a significant slowdown. While the financial crisis had an impact on sales in Russia and Eastern Europe, emerging markets in general have so far proved resilient to a slowdown in the mobile arena, and this is particularly true of Africa, which is benefiting from lower oil and food prices.
- The Asia/Pacific market registered mixed fortunes in 3Q08. Although there were signs of growth in emerging markets like China and Indonesia, other developed markets suffered during the quarter. In particular, the Australia market slumped due to a combination of third-quarter seasonality and weak economic sentiment, while the high-end Korea market experienced a double-digit decrease as dueling operators eased away from an expensive subsidy war.
