Posts Tagged ‘gartner’

LG now more popular than Sony Ericsson

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

The folks over at LG must be popping a few champagne corks right now – according to analysts Gartner, LG phones are now more popular than their Sony Ericsson counterparts: in the analysts’ latest set of quarterly figures, LG has jumped ahead of Sony Ericsson for the first time to take the number four slot in the handset maker top five.

Gartner reckons LG now has eight percent of the market, thanks to a touchscreen-rich portfolio that picked up some reflected glory from the iPhone launch, while Sony Ericsson had a couple of gaps in its high and mid tier range that saw it struggle a bit in the last quarter.

Motorola meanwhile continues to slip and is now just two percent ahead LG and 2.5 percent ahead of Sony Ericsson. Given Motorola’s range is still desperately uninspiring at the moment, I wouldn’t bet against LG, Sony Ericsson or both overtaking its sales wise before too long.

Mobile makers need to think about sex more

Friday, April 11th, 2008

Analysts Gartner have put out a advisory criticising the mobile industry for being too male-centric. According to Gartner, “Sixty-eight percent of the world’s population is women and children who could benefit much from mobile technology, but the majority of mobile devices are designed by men, for men,”, with most mobiles being targeted at western adult male (age 20 to 64).

Handset makers and enterprises need to get ready to address shifting demographics, the analysts say, and take into account “gender diversity and demographics”.

I’m always vaguely suspicious when gender gets brought into design. After all, it was the idea of better targeting women that spawned the awful and embarrassing trend for bringing device out in range of sugary, teeth grinding shades of pink. Please, no more. Equally, no more diet phones or phones that predict when you ovulate. Any chance we can see gender-differentiated handsets that aren’t condescending to the market they’re trying to target?


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