So did worldwide mobile phone sales increase in 2009, or was the year a bit flat?

Latest figures from US research house Gartner show that the total number of phones sold worldwide in 2009 was 1.211 billion units, a 0.9% drop from 2008. Most of which one day will end up with the mobile phone recyclers.

On a slightly better note, sales in the fourth quarter of 2009 were actually up 8.3% (340 million units) over the fourth quarter of 2008, so the trend is getting better.

Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, said:
“The mobile devices market finished on a very positive note, driven by growth in smartphones and low-end devices. Smartphone sales to end users continued their strong growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, totalling 53.8 million units, up 41.1% from the same period in 2008. In 2009, smartphone sales reached 172.4 million units, a 23.8 per cent increase from 2008. In 2009, smartphone-focused vendors like Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) successfully captured market share from other larger device producers, controlling 14.4% and 19.9% of the worldwide smartphone market, respectively.”

Gartner also highlighted the intense competition felt by manufacturers in 2009, not only in growing markets such as China and India, but also in the mature markets. But, Gartner reckons that the stronger economic climate will mean better times throughout 2010.

As to the manufacturers themselves, the big five of Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson had mixed fortunes. As a group, they lost market share to the likes of Apple and other manufacturers, with their combined share dropping from 79.7% in 2008 to 75.3% in 2009.

Nokia’s share of the market dropped from 38.6% to 36.4% as pressure on smartphone price points took their toll. Samsung did actually better in 2009, going from 16.3% to 19.5%. LG also showed a market share improvement, up from 8.4% to 10.1%. But Motorola took a hit, falling from 8.7% to 4.8% and Sony Ericsson also showed a decline from 7.6% to 4.5%.

Its seems that one of the main reasons why once uber cool mobile manufacturer Sony Ericcson is not performing as well these days, is that the company’s range of phones lack internet capability. It was one of the main losers in the latest figures on the mobile phone market. Sony Ericcson dropped from a 7.5% share of the market in the second quarter of 2008, to 4.7% in the second quarter of 2009.

And Gartner, which monitors the mobile phone market and compiles the figures, puts this down not just to a challenging market, but to the lacklustre performance of Sony Ericcson’s uncompetitive handsets.

A Gartner spokesperson said:
“Sony Ericsson has neglected to exploit key trends such as qwerty products for messaging and e-mail, internet browsing and navigation. If it wants to build the presence of its three new products announced this quarter in the channel and capture Christmas sales, the products need to come to market early in the fourth quarter of 2009.”

Of course, all is not lost for Sony Ericcson, a brand which commands a lot of respect in the sector, as the mobile phone market is very susceptible to changing trends and fashions. And with sales of 13.6 million units in the second quarter to 2009, giving it fifth place overall, Sony Ericcson remains a major player.

And although Nokia remains very much the market leader with a 37% share, the manufacturers doing really well were Samsung and LG, with sales of 55 million units and 30.5 million units, respectively, in the second quarter of 2009. Samsung’s story is almost the opposite of Sony Ericcson which, having secured its fair share of touchscreen devices, qwerty phones and smartphones, helped boost its performance in the mature markets. Following a contrary strategy is LG, and gaining some success with it, is LG’s move into low-tier devices designed to exploit growth in emerging markets, especially in China. The 3G rollout in China is a big opportunity for the mobile phone manufacturers and value-for-money devices are in demand.

The fourth player in the top five, Motorola, also had a disappointing quarter, with sales down due to its reliance on the US market and failing influence in Europe. Sales in Western Europe of Motorola handsets were below one million for the quarter under scrutiny.

As the recession eases, it will be interesting to see which manufacturers can properly exploit both the expected upturn in the mature markets and the opportunities in the emerging markets.