Nokia Stretches Lead Over Samsung In UK Market, LG Trails After 20% Drop In Revenue

Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia has extended their lead over Korean competitor Samsung in the UK mobile industry, with a combination of strong high-end sales bolstered by a bedrock of entry level devices giving them a 4% larger share as of the end of March.

Despite Samsung’s best efforts to retain their brief spell at the top spot around the Holiday season (thanks in large part to the barebones E1120 selling at £4.99 on prepay at selected supermarkets), a melange of music phones including the 5530 XpressMusic, 5330 XpressMusic and flagship X6 saw Nokia’s fortunes improve massively.

With forthcoming Nokia C-series phones like the cute C5 and QWERTY-capable C3 targeting the lucrative mid-range heartland and an optimistic (yet short of estimations) first quarter earnings report, trust in the manufacturer has been buoyed whilst many believe Samsung could stand to lose yet more ground.

A protracted journey to market for the Samsung Wave – the manufacturer’s first device to be powered by their ‘bada’ operating system – has disappointed expectant retailers, whilst the Galaxy Portal has been somewhat overshadowed by the furore surrounding the Android ‘superphone’ duo of the HTC Desire and Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10.

High end plans were cemented with the wrappers coming off the new flagship Nokia N8 recently, impressing many with an impressively low €370 price point as well as marking the advent of the new Symbian^3 operating system, touted to offer a user experience more on a par with that of its smartphone rivals.

Time will tell in Nokia can capitalise on this position by targeting both ends of the spectrum, but it is certainly proving a successful strategy thus far.

Less successful is Korean manufacturer LG, posting a disappointing quarter which saw sales drop across the board by almost 20%.

Citing investment and marketing expenses as well as handset prices as contributing factors, LG posted a 0.9% fall in year-on-year profits despite shipping over 27 million phones in the quarter.

Plans to improve fortunes by boosting LG’s smartphone offerings and expanding the range are said to be on the cards, despite a recent decision to leave the exciting Moorestown-powered GW990 on the concept drawing board…

With BlackBerry continuing to deliver new (yet somewhat iterative) handsets like the Pearl 3G and the promise of a fourth generation iPhone due to launch in a slightly more…official capacity, the mobile phone market has every indication of hotting up this Summer…

Source: Mobile Today

Tags: android, desire, gw990, htc, LG, Nokia, samsung, samsung wave, Sony Ericsson