Posted by
chinambilephone on Friday, November 27, 2009 8:40:50 PM
During the quarter, Nokia's china cell phones sales rose 20.6% y-o-y to 18.44 million units, accounting for 17.5% of its total phone shipments during the period, while RIM's sales gained 37.3% to 7.68 million units. Apple, meanwhile, delivered a phenomenal growth of 508.9% to 5.43 million units in 2Q. All this was without the China market contributing much to their smartphone sales.
Technology industry research firm iSuppli projects smartphone shipments to increase at least 6% from 2008's 173.6 million units to 183.9 million units in the current year based on a "pessimistic outlook", or 192.3 million units based on an "optimistic" outlook. Further ahead, iSuppli projects smartphone sales to reach at least 230 million units in 2010 and 300 million units in 2011, compared to shipments of less than 100 million units in 2006, and under 150 million units in 2007.
Within the smartphone segment, RIM and Apple, with their strong brand appeal in specific market sections, may be better positioned than Nokia to capture such growth. Nokia, despite seeing its watch cell phones sales surge, suffered a y-o-y decline of 12.4% in total phone shipments during 2Q to 105.41 million units. But RIM and Apple were not pulled down by slower sales in the conventional phone segment as they have no exposure in that market.
Analysts polled by Bloomberg projected Nokia's earnings in FY2010 ended Dec 31 to increase to $3US.6 billion from FY2009's estimates of $2US.5 billion. But this is still a far cry from the net profit of $5US.68 billion it registered in FY2008, on revenue of $72US.26 billion.
Nevertheless, Nokia was traded at a modest 13.52 times estimated earnings for FY2010 ended Dec 31, based on the prices of its American Depository Receipts listed on the New York Stock Exchange of mini cell phones $13US.84 last Thursday.