Nokia stretches lead in UK market Tweet

Nokia regains and stretches its lead over Samsung in the UK, as BlackBerry also grows share and leapfrogs LG into fourth.

Nokia has regained its lead in the UK market, and stretched it to around nine percentage points in recent weeks over second-placed Samsung.

Samsung was number one in the UK by market share in the two months before Christmas, topping the sales chart with around 33 per cent during Christmas week.

But Nokia recaptured the lead by early January, and has increased its share by around three per cent in the intervening period with the release of the X3 and X6 handsets in the consumer market and the E72 in the business sector. It now stands at a little over 30 per cent.

Samsung's share has at the same time dropped by 11 percentage points since its Christmas high, with around 21 per cent at the start of March. It has brought new QWERTY and slider Genio variants this year, as well the Google Android-based Galaxy Portal. It has put heavy marketing behind its Omnia II device also.

Weekly sales measures by market researcher GfK show Sony Ericsson's share has dropped by almost three percentage points since the start of the year, although it retains third. Its flagship Aino and Satio, after early software troubles, have led its portfolio. Its new Vivaz launched on O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile last week.

LG has remained broadly steady with between eight and nine per cent of the UK market. LG's first Android handset, the InTouch Max, launched on T-Mobile and Virgin at the start of the year.

But BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has jumped more than four points in the first quarter to around 11 per cent, and into fourth place ahead of LG in UK market share terms. It is pushing into the prepay market, and increasingly into the consumer mass market with the Curve 8520 in particular.

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