Sony Ericsson shines in a stagnating market

Sony Ericsson is the star performer in a stagnating mobile handset market, according to a round-up of the Big Five's Quarter 1 results.

Year on year the market grew by 'just' 20% - and it was the first quarter in two years that hadn't met expectations, according to analysts quoted by Mobile Today.

Sony Ericsson's volume success has come on the back of it dual strategy of high quality handsets - the K800i cameraphone and W880i Walkman phone, for instance - and broadening its brand reach with high value (ie cheaper) phones such as the W300i.

Of the Big 5 Motorola is the most obvious straggler with unit sales down 15% and a Q1 loss of £124m. Analysts say the company hasn't had a successful follow up to the blockbusting RZR and high-profile duds like the Apple iTunes-compatible RKR haven't helped.

LG also had a reasonably good quarter with the Prada and Shine phones being particularly successful in the UK - where some analysts claim it overtook Motorola in Q1 market share in the contract sector.

Nokia easily retained its No. 1 status but dipped 5% in volume over Q1 2006. Samsung also did the mobile phone maker equivalent of treading water with a 2% year-on-year slippage.