Nokia says half of mobile users will try multimedia

A market study by MORI commissioned by Nokia has found that between 33% and 43% of mobile subscribers in Singapore, Germany and the UK are likely to use wireless multimedia services within the next year or so.~ ~ That equates to about 90 million subscribers, each of which is expected to increase their average monthly spend on telecoms services by between 11% and 26%.~ ~ Meanwhile, research house IDC has reported that the industry’s fourth-quarter handset sales grew 24% year-on-year to 194.3 million units.~ ~ Nokia again retained the Number One position, although second-ranked Motorola exhibited faster growth.~ ~ Meanwhile, although the South Korean vendor, Samsung Electronics, saw shipments decline 7% in the quarter, the company stayed firmly in place as the world`s Number Three manufacturer.~ ~ Interestingly, competition between Samsung and Motorola is now so intense that, by some measures at least, the South Korean company actually beats the US vendor into second place in some product categories.~ ~ “Now that there is more clarity among the top three spots, the competition will continue to heat up for the final two positions in the Global Top Five” said IDC Mobile Devices Group analyst Ramon Llamas.~ ~ According to the research, full-year industry shipments topped 664.5 million handsets, with Nokia claiming a 31.2% market share for the year. Motorola boosted its shipments by more than a third to take a 16.4% market share, followed by Samsung with 10.9%, LG Electronics with 7.2% and Siemens with 6.9%.