Cell Phone Market Growth Slowing In 2007

Cell phone sales growth increased by 10% in the first quarter of 2007 over the same quarter in 2006. Still, this healthy 10% growth could not keep up with the previous quarter.

IDC has published a new press release showing that so far, 2007 probably won't keep up with the record cell phone sales of 2006 which saw an amazing 20% year-on-year growth in each quarter of that year. The release states, "this reflects IDC's expectations that as more subscribers are added to the network, fewer new subscribers are left to be added".

The release also provides the Top 5 Cell Phone vendors in this order:

1. Nokia
2. Motorola
3. Samsung
4. Sony Ericsson
5. LG Electronics

Samsung and Sony Ericsson benefitted from Motorola's missteps by posting a year-on-year growth with Sony Ericsson showing the largest growth. It's interesting to compare this to ProductCritic's cell phone reviews. While Samsung phones have only had quite average reviews, the latest crop of Sony Ericsson phones are mostly getting quite good marks from the professional reviewers. With Nokia still holding a 30%+ market share, we'll be shoring up the number of Nokia reviews we have on ProductCritic.