Motorola Still Owns US Handset Market

Motorola’s (NYSE:MOT) handset business came close to collapse after its failure to replace its successful RAZR cost it the No.2 global market share position in its industry. The firm’s shares crashed from over $26 in late 2006 to just above $3 last March. The stock trades at $6.55 now. Motorola’s new Droid product has shown early success, and experts believe that the company has a modest chance of a profit in its cellphone business by the end of this year.

Motorola still dominates one market–the US. comScore reports that the company had 23.5% of the original equipment manufacturer business in America the fourth quarter, down from 24.9% in the third.

Korean handset companies hold almost 45% of the US. LG with a 21.9% share and Samsung at 21.2%. Along with Motorola, these firms make mid-priced handsets with modest features which often include simple cameras, web access, and text keyboards. Most of the phones that AT&T Wireless gives away with subscriber plans are from LG, Motorola, and Samsung. Among OEMs, Nokia (NYSE:MOT) has a 9.2% and RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) has 7%.

Smartphone operating system market share was dominated by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and RIM in the fourth quarter of last year. RIM had a 41.6% share to Apple’s 25.3%. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) was third with and 18% share. Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) share of US mobile OS was only 5.2% but that was double the figure in the third quarter of 2009. The growth in the list of the Android OS powered phones will almost certainly cause a sharp increase in the search engine company’s figure for the current quarter.

Motorola may have lost everything else, but it still controls its home market.

Douglas A. McIntyre