NPD Group: U.S. Mobile Phone Sales Reached 31.6 Million Units in Third Quarter 2005

It's that time of the year again when the various research shops release their quarterly market figures. Next up on the list is the NPD Group, which announced that "mobile phone sales to consumers in the U.S. reached 31.6 million units in the third quarter of 2005," representing growth of seven percent from the second quarter and an increase of more than 30 percent compared to sales during the same period in 2004. NPD estimated total third quarter 2005 consumer sales of slightly more than $2 billion.

Neil Strother at NPD said, "The handset market was very robust in the third quarter. These numbers reflect strong replacement demand among consumers, coupled with more limited growth from new subscribers.”

NPD reported that manufacturers’ third quarter 2005 unit sales and market shares were as follows:

Company	3Q 2005 Unit Sales (in thousands)	3Q 2005 Market Share
Motorola	9,458	30%
LG	5,077	16%
Nokia	5,032	16%
Samsung	4,883	16%
Sanyo	1,522	5%
Kyocera	1,378	4%
Sony Ericsson	1,150	4%
UTStarcom/Audiovox	952	3%
Siemens/BenQ	506	2%
Others	1,625	5%
Total	31,583	100%

The top-selling handset models during third quarter 2005 were the following:

Rank	Manufacturer	Model
1	Motorola	RAZR V3
2	Nokia	6010
3	Motorola	V551
4	LG	VX6100
5	Motorola	V180