Nokia still top of charts, Motorola in real trouble

Motorola's handsets just aren't catching the imagination any more
Motorola's handsets just aren't catching the imagination any more

Despite suffering what you might call a 'wobbly' 2008, Nokia has still got a more than healthy lead in the mobile phone sales charts. Motorola has fared less well... it has scrubbed nearly a third of its market share.

The stats, published by research company IDC, are based on market sales performance in Q3 of this year compared to the same period in 2007.

The other players in the mobile phone market have held on much better, with Samsung still powering ahead in second place, and LG clawing its way up to, despite remaining behind Moto in the overall charts.

Hammered

Sony Ericsson might have been hammered somewhat for falling behind in mobile phone sales in some markets, but remains steadfastly in fourth place, scrubbing just 0.8 per cent of its market share.

But Moto REALLY needs to be worried, losing 31.7 per cent of its share in the last year, which is now down to just 12.7 per cent.

This can be attributed to a number of reasons: the fact it hasn't come up with a handset as good as the RAZR since, well, the RAZR, and the massive strides taken by the likes of Samsung and LG in the past 12 months.

And a special mention to the iPhone, which has helped Apple tag two per cent of the market in the last year or so... well done to you in Cupertino.

But keep smiling if you love your Finnish phones... the Nokia brigade has still got a global Q3 market share of 39.4 per cent, so it appears at least one company will weather the credit crunch.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.