GartnerGroup's Dataquest Says U.S. Mobile Handset Sales Exceeded 10 Million Units in Second Quarter 1999; CDMA Accounted for Nearly Half of Digital Handset Sales.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 1999--

Driven by continued growth in the digital handset market, U.S. mobile handset sales surpassed 10.3 million units in the second quarter of this year, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group, Inc. (NYSE:IT).

Digital handsets accounted for 77.8 percent of U.S. mobile handset sales in the second quarter, while analog handsets totaled 22.2 percent of sales.

In comparison, 1998 year-end results show that analog handsets had 40 percent of the U.S. handset market. Dataquest analysts said that code-division multiple access (CDMA IS-95) handsets are an increasingly large component of the strong growth of digital mobile telephony in the United States.

"The growth of the U.S. CDMA market continues to play havoc with the market share fortunes of the industry's traditional top-tier vendors," said Bryan Prohm, senior industry analyst for Dataquest's Mobile Communications Terminal Devices North America program.

"For example, Nokia's weak share in CDMA has prevented it from completely running away with the U.S. market. Motorola's successful CDMA portfolio has helped it capture the No. 2 position in the overall U.S. mobile handset market (see Table 1). Ericsson, which currently does not offer a CDMA product, slipped to the No. 5 position."

Within the U.S. digital handset market, CDMA technology represented 47 percent of sales in the second quarter. Year-end 1998 results showed CDMA had 38 percent of the digital handset market. In 1998, time-division multiple access (TDMA IS 136) technology had 46 percent of digital handset sales, but in the second quarter of 1999, TDMA slipped to 39 percent of sales. -0-

Table 1

U.S. Mobile Handset Market Share Estimates by Unit Sales, Second
Quarter 1999

Company             Q2/99 Market Share (%)
Nokia                                 31.7
Motorola                              22.4
QUALCOMM                              12.2
Audiovox                              10.3
Ericsson                              10.2
Others                                13.2
Total Market                         100.0
Source: Dataquest (September 1999)

Additional information on this market is available by subscribing to Dataquest's Mobile Communications Terminal Devices North America program. This program provides detailed forecasts and actionable analysis of developments in the mobile communications terminals sector and the fast-changing distribution channels through which they reach the market.

More information on this program is available on Dataquest's Web site at http://www.dataquest.com/dq/static/offer/programs/mobdnads19981130.

To subscribe to this program, please call 800/419-DATA or 408/468-8009. More information about Dataquest's programs, descriptions of recent research reports, and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://www.dataquest.com.

GartnerGroup analysts are taking a unique look at the wireless market during The Great Wireless Experiment. Bob Egan, GartnerGroup research director for wireless communications in North America, has put away his wireline-based technologies, and for 30 days his communications (both voice and data) are being conducted exclusively with wireless products.

A special Web page has been developed to monitor Egan's activities with various wireless products. The site will also be updated with GartnerGroup research findings on the wireless industry. The Great Wireless Experiment Web site can be accessed at http://www.gartner.com/wireless.

GartnerGroup's Dataquest is the recognized leader in providing the high-technology and financial communities with market intelligence for the semiconductor, computer systems and peripherals, communications, document management, software, and services sectors of the global information technology industry.

As the world's leading authority on IT, GartnerGroup provides clients with a wide range of products and services in the areas of IT advisory services, measurement, research, decision support, analysis, and consulting. Founded in 1979, with headquarters in Stamford, Conn., GartnerGroup is at the center of a global community serving Fortune 1000 clients from 80 locations worldwide.

Additional information about the company is available on the Internet at http://www.gartner.com.