Wireless-Phone Ads Surge In Q1-Q3; Nokia Tops, Ericsson & Samsung Gain

By Joseph Palenchar On Dec 17 2001 - 8:00am

Wireless datarates are accelerating, and so is the rate of growth in wireless-phone advertising in newspapers and catalogs.

The number of phones advertised grew 27.5 percent in the first three quarters of this year to 108,796, compared to a 23 percent growth rate in the year-ago period, according to a survey by Beyen International Market Research (see table 2). In turn, 1999's Q1-Q3 advertising frequency was up 18 percent.

During the first three quarters of this year, Nokia remained the most frequently advertised phone brand, enjoying a 32.4 percent share of all advertised phones, up slightly from the previous year's 31.5 percent. Motorola kept its number two spot even though its percentage share slipped to 22.1 percent of advertised phones from the previous' year's 25.1 percent. Nonetheless, the number of Motorola phones advertised grew 12 percent to 24,000.

In its survey of ads in more than 90 newspapers and catalogs, Beyen also found that:

• Samsung's ad share shot up to third place from fifth with a 14.6 percent share.

• Ericsson's share rose almost 3 percent points to 13.2 percent but remained in fourth place.

• And Kyocera's share rose to a fifth-place 4.2 percent from last year's ninth place as the Qualcomm brand that it bought was phased out.

The survey also found that when as share is ranked by brand and technology:

• Samsung remained the most heavily advertised brand of CDMA phone, and Motorola gained ground to hit second place in CDMA from last year's fourth place.

• Nokia remained the most heavily advertised brand of GSM phone and TDMA phone.

• Panasonic TDMA phones, which weren't advertised at all in the first three quarters of 2000, took fourth place in 2001, contributing to eroding Motorola TDMA share.

Advertised prices remained relatively stable, and CDMA phones remained the most expensive, Beyen also found (see table 3). During full-year 2000, the average advertised price of a wireless phone was $97.72, and the average price during January-October 2001 was $96.45.

Here are some of the trend details uncovered by Beyen:

Advertising frequency: Among the top 10 brands in advertising share in the first through the third quarter of 2001, all brands posted gains in the number of their phones advertised except for Audiovox and Qualcomm, the latter brand having been discontinued. (See table 1.)

Kyocera, which entered the market last year, posted the biggest gain during the time period, with the number of advertised models rising 744 percent. Samsung and Ericsson also posted substantial gains, with the number of advertised models rising 94.7 percent to 15,882 and 61 percent to 14,410, respectively. Nokia posted a 30.8 percent gain to 107,796, and Motorola gained 12 percent to 24,000.

Technologies advertised: By a healthy margin, CDMA phones were advertised more frequently than any other technology in full-year 2000 and the January-October period in 2001, Beyen found (see table 1). The second-most-often advertised technology was TDMA, followed by GSM. Beyen also found life in the analog market in 2001.

Advertised prices: The average advertised price of analog and TDMA phones fell during each of the first three quarters of this year compared to their respective year-ago quarters, but prices were up for GSM phones and 1.9GHz CDMA phones in two of the three quarters. Prices of dual-band and trimode CDMA phones were down in two of the three quarters.

Ad Share By Brand

	Q1-Q3, 2000			Q1-Q3 2001
	No. of Ads*	% Share		No. of Ads*	% Share
Total	85,357	100.0%	Total	107,796	100.0%
Nokia	26,902	31.5%	Nokia	35,202	32.4%
Motorola	21,423	25.1%	Motorola	24,000	22.1%
Qualcomm	10,569	12.4%	Samsung	15,882	14.6%
Ericsson	8,932	10.5%	Ericsson	14,410	13.2%
Samsung	8,157	9.6%	Kyocera	4,525	4.2%
Audiovox	5,655	6.6%	TouchPoint	3,903	3.9%
Mitsubishi	1,371	1.6%	Audiovox	4,086	3.8%
LG	717	0.8%	Sanyo	3,076	2.8%
Kyocera	536	0.6%	LG InfoComm	1,155	1.1%
Bell Atlantic	297	0.3%	Qualcomm	1,388	1.3%
*Based on advertised phones appearing in more than 90 newspapers and catalogs. Source: Beyen International Market Research, Niagara Falls, N.Y. (905) 374-4596 ©TWICE 2001

Number of Phones Advertised By Brand
(Ranking based on 2000 and 2001 combined)

	2000 Q1	2000 Q2	2000 Q3	2000 Q4	2000 Total	2001 Q1	2001 Q2	2001 Q3	2001* Q4	2001* Total
NOKIA	8,262	8,147	10,493	13,513	40,415	11,847	10,822	12,533	5,051	40,253
MOTOROLA	6,235	7,152	8,036	10,642	32,065	10,579	8,147	5,274	2,250	26,250
SAMSUNG	1,007	2,866	4,284	4,284	12,441	5,001	6,926	3,955	2,006	17,888
ERICSSON	3,084	2,715	3,133	4,238	13,170	4,616	6,029	3,765	1,401	15,811
QUALCOMM	3,635	2,855	4,079	2,147	12,716	726	454	208	4	1,392
AUDIOVOX	1,304	1,814	2,537	2,256	7,911	1,101	604	2,381	132	4,218
KYOCERA	0	0	536	1,804	2,340	1,653	2,035	837	848	5,373
TOUCHPOINT	0	0	2	789	791	601	2,159	1,143	863	4,766
SANYO	117	52	43	727	939	442	1,786	848	550	3,626
LG	356	263	98	272	989	503	228	424	773	1,928
MITSUBISHI	353	510	508	267	1,638	230	66	8	37	341
PANASONIC	0	0	0	0	0	61	279	247	86	673
SPRINT	203	25	59	197	484	15	38	13	26	92
BELL.ATLAN	278	18	1	33	330	13	0	0	0	13
SONY	33	21	69	8	131	36	18	3	1	58
NEOPOINT	0	1	1	117	119	2	1	0	0	3
NEC	0	0	0	54	54	29	14	7	0	50
HYUNDAI	71	0	29	0	100	0	0	0	0	0
UNIDEN	8	12	6	24	50	6	0	40	0	46
SIEMENS	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	27	13	40
BOSCH	12	6	4	0	22	0	8	5	0	13
PHILIPS	14	7	3	0	24	0	0	0	0	0
NO NAME	0	0	0	21	21	0	0	1	0	1
MAGNAVOX	0	0	0	2	2	1	0	0	0	1
GEN.ELECT.	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
Total	24,972	26,464	33,921	41,395	126,752	37,462	39,615	31,719	14,041	122,837
*Excludes November and December Source: Beyen International Market Research, Niagara Falls, N.Y. (905) 374-4596 ©TWICE 2002

Average Advertised Phone Prices
(Ranking based on 2000 and 2001 combined)

		2000 Q1	2000 Q2	2000 Q3	2000 Q4	2000 Total	2001 Q1	2001 Q2	2001 Q3	2001* Q4	2001* Total
ANALOG	ALL	51.36	57.03	44.58	48.89	49.40	28.70	26.65	22.99	21.03	25.45
CDMA	1900 only	108.29	92.62	92.39	85.76	96.10	101.39	122.96	119.30	99.19	109.75
CDMA/ANALOG	Dual/Tri-Mode	100.97	119.58	122.92	119.47	117.74	117.81	114.97	121.77	102.15	116.69
GSM	ALL	61.76	69.30	79.24	83.16	74.69	91.07	89.48	75.01	62.81	81.34
TDMA	ALL	86.32	72.92	73.78	60.74	73.14	65.57	67.13	63.35	53.84	64.07
iDEN	ALL	120.42	110.16	109.81	123.89	116.59	125.08	146.84	117.07	118.41	127.55
All Technologies		99.09	96.64	97.41	97.83	97.72	99.37	97.29	95.86	80.28	96.45
*Excludes November and December Source: Beyen International Market Research, Niagara Falls, N.Y. (905) 374-4596 ©TWICE 2001