How much longer will Motorola be top U.S. handset maker?

by Joe P on February 9, 2010

The past few years haven’t been too kind to Motorola. The company that created massive hype with the RAZR has tumbled recently, seeing their mobile device sales fall over the past few years. After shipping over 40 million units in the fourth quarter of 2007, Motorola shipped under 20 million in the fourth quarter 2008, and that fell to 12 million in Q4 2009. Yet there are some reasons to remain optimistic. Motorola has taken to the Android platform, shipping devices to Verizon and T-Mobile that, while not at the level of iPhone popularity, are still attractive devices. Another reason they might remain optimistic: the company still holds the top market share of U.S. mobile devices.

For the period ending December 09, comScore reports that Motorola held 23.5 percent of the U.S. mobile handset market. These aren’t the numbers for phones sold, of course, but of the devices used by the 234 million U.S. cell phone customers. The prevalence of Motorola phones, especially the RAZR, available on prepaid plans surely helps boost their number. It’s a decrease of 1.4 percent from the September 09 report, but it still leads the field by about 1.5 percent.

LG finished second, increasing their market share just 0.2 percent, to 21.9 percent. Samsung saw the greatest increase, 0.8 percent, to 21.2 percent. BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion jumped 0.6 percent to 7 even, on the strength of their newly-released devices, the Bold 9700 and the Storm 2.

Yet the news wasn’t all good for RIM. While they saw an increase in their overall market share, they dropped a bit in smartphone market share. The company remains atop the U.S. chart, at 41.6 percent, but actually dropped a percent from September 09. Apple picked that up, growing 1.2 percent to 25.3 percent, though RIM remains firmly in the lead with 41.6 percent. Microsoft and Palm saw decreasing market share, while Google saw the biggest increase, 2.7 percent, bringing them to a 5.2 percent U.S. market share with their Android platform.

We’ll get another report, likely in May, for the first quarter of 2009. Chances are we’ll see Motorola slip a bit more, while RIM might gain if it releases its anticipated devices, the Tour 2 and the new Pearl, in the first quarter. Will this be the quarter where Samsung overtakes Motorola?

Filed under : Cell Phones