There is definitely some salient info for investors looking at or in the mobile phone market:
- Smart phone are on fire: "the percentage of smartphones sold during the third quarter increased from 4% of all phone sales in the third quarter of 2006 to 11% during the same timeframe in 2007 – an increase of 163% year over year."
- Convergence of musical devices with phones: "Fifty percent of new phones were able to play music in the third quarter of 2007 (double the prior year) and 11 percent were smartphones."
While Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) commanded the largest marketshare of the top 5 manufacturers at 31%, growth in the industry (47% year over year) is jacking up the competition. Apple has made a splash with the iPhone and its going to be interesting to see what route Google, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) is going to take with its rumored gPhone. Read Sheldon Liber's good analysis of what Google may be planning to do with a mobile platform.
As the iPhone gets more traction, it will be interesting to see what NPD's analysis will look like in a year from now.
Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Disclosure: He holds a position in GOOG but none in the other stocks mentioned.
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