Nokia announced a surge in net profits of 43% to e1.14bn on sales of e9.8bn, with shipments to China and India booming. Nokia’s estimated market share in Q2 was 34%, down from 35% in the first quarter but up from 33% in Q2 2005.
World No 2 Motorola did rather better, with 22% of the Q2 shipments – up from 17% one year ago. Sales of $10.9bn up 29% on a year ago, and net profits rose 48%.
Motorola CEO Ed Zander said 50m RAZRs have now been shipped. He was also keen to emphasise Motorola’s credentials in the music business: “Since Q3 2005, we have now shipped nearly 10m music-enabled handsets, as many as any other competitor”.
Sony Ericsson turned in some of the best Q2 figures—profits more than double from the year before at e211m, sales up 41% to e2.27bn, a 33% increase in handsets shipped.
But LG Electronics posted a surprise net deficient, thanks to massive losses at its flat screen business and in spite of better-than-expected handset results. LG lost 9.7bn won (£5.5m) in the quarter on sales that were up only slightly at 5.8 trillion won. It sold 15.3m handsets in Q2, up from 12m a year ago but down from 15.6m in Q1.