Phone sales to bounce back in fall

Apple in two years has pushed the iPhone up to 2.5 percent of the entire cellphone market, Strategy Analytics estimates. The company has roughly doubled its share from a year ago and now has half the share of established firms Motorola and Sony Ericsson, which have remained flat at five percent. Some of the gain is likely to have come at Nokia's expense, as it shrank to 37 percent share, its lowest since the start of 2007.

Samsung was the largest winner in the phone market and climbed to 21 percent, or second place, after shipping 16 percent more phones than it did a year ago. LG despite its recent smartphone push has just 11 percent of the total market.

The gains made by Apple and Samsung are predictive of what the analyst group sees as the first genuine year-over-year increase in phone sales since the worldwide economic crisis began. It expects sales in the entire phone industry to climb three percent to reach 300 million phones. The increase would be a reflection a recovering financial climate and may also be helped by a return to form for companies like Motorola, whose Droid may be its first strong-selling device since the RAZR.

By Electronista Staff