Nokia, Motorola top cell makers

Finland’s Nokia remains No. 1 in the cell phone industry.
The industry’s No. 2 player, Motorola of the United States, also maintained its position but fell back slightly.
Korea’s Samsung Electronics stayed at No. 3 and LG Electronics of Korea was ranked No. 5.
The rankings are from Strategy Analytics, a research firm.
Nokia and Sony-Ericsson were the only two cell phone firms to improve their operating profit, year-on-year.
Nokia, the biggest market share holder, increased its operating profit 15.3 percent, slightly higher than the previous year’s 15.1 percent.
Profit at Sony-Ericsson rose to 11.8 percent from 7.1 percent the previous year.
Motorola, LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics all failed to increase their profit from a year ago.
The average price for a Sony-Ericsson phone increased, while all other brands offered lower prices, based on the American Selling Price, or ASP.
An average Sony-Ericsson cost $177, while the average at Nokia was $122 and $131 for Motorola.
Korean companies Samsung and LG offered their cell phones at average prices of $172 and $160.
Competition is lowering the prices, but the growing mobile phone market in developing countries is another reason for the decrease in prices, analysts said.
In countries with low income, phones with lower prices tend to sell more.
Meanwhile, the annual number of mobile phones sold globally topped one billion for the first time last year.

By Hwang Young-jin Staff Writer [yhwang@joongang.co.kr]