Handset Market Growth and Consolidation

IT Business Edge offers up a short Q&A with analyst Neil Mawston of Strategy Analytics on the findings of the firm's recent Q2 2005 Global Handset Market Share Update. Mawston talks about the growth of emerging markets and entry-level handsets and the growing concentration of market share among the major vendors. On the topic of industry consolidation, Mawston said:

The mobile phone industry is currently in the middle of a global merger wave that started in 2004 and will last into 2006. For example, TCL-Alcatel, BenQ-Siemens and Pantech-Curitel-SKTeletech are seven prominent brands that have merged or been acquired during the last year. We expect further consolidation in 2006, particularly among Chinese and Japanese players. The top two players today have a combined 50 percent global share between them. In such an open market, with more than 60 competitors worldwide, it will be difficult, but not impossible, for that ratio to exceed 55 percent organically in the near term.