Samsung has flexed their mobile phone muscle snaring the top spot in the highly competitive US phone market ahead of the likes of Nokia and local manufacturer Motorola.
In contrast, LG Electronics fell to third place. In the third quarter (which ended Sept. 30), Samsung posted a market share of 22.4 percent to become the No. 1 handset manufacturer according to Boston-based research firm Strategy Analytics.
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| New Samsung Omnia. Due in Australia this month. |
Motorola fell to second place with a 21.1 percent share during the quarter. Motorola, which had been the top vendor in its home-turf since 2004, suffered a drastic market share drop from 32.7 percent a year before. LG ranked third with 20.5 percent.
Analysts and industry watchers say Samsung, which also trails behind industry leader Nokia, has been offering carriers a full portfolio of devices, from high-end products such as touch-screen Instinct, messaging phones of Blackjack I, II and Glyde, to lower-end phones given freely to customers who sign up with a particular carrier.
“Growing retail presence and high-tier handset models appealed to all four big operators,” the research firm said, adding Motorola now faces challenges in the U.S. as it doesn’t have a product in the smart-phone segment.
About 30 percent of mobile phone shipments in the U.S. are smart phones that have e-mail and Web surfing functions.
Samsung is fully set to propel its newest Omnia phones, which run Windows Mobile 6.1 with Motorola, planning to introduce a smart phone operating Windows Mobile 6.5 by the second half of next year, along with a device backed by Google’s Android open-source software.
