MARKET RESEARCH.

Dataquest Says Mobile Phone Sales Increased 65 Percent In 1999

Worldwide sales of mobile handsets reached 283 million units in 1999, a 65 percent increase over 1998 sales, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group Inc. Dataquest analysts predict that the market is set to explode by the end of 2000, with sales estimated to surpass 410 million units.

Reaping the benefits of a focused branding campaign, strong product design and an unrivalled distribution channel, Nokia not only retained its position as the No. 1 manufacturer with its market share totaling 27 percent, but also beat its nearest rival by 10 percent. Motorola and Ericsson held on to their No. 2 and No. 3 positions, respectively, despite growing slower than the overall market growth. Korean manufacturer Samsung experienced the strongest growth among the top-tier vendors, as its 1999 sales grew 277 percent over 1998 results.

"There is no question that Nokia has performed outstandingly well with a growth rate of 98 percent, and Samsung has benefited from strong growth in CDMA markets, both at home and in the Americas," says Peter Richardson, principal analyst for Dataquest's Mobile Communications Worldwide program. "Samsung has also performed well in the GSM markets of Europe and Asia, underlining the strength of this organization and potential for continued market penetration in the future. It is this type of progress which makes market leaders like Nokia vulnerable to attack in the next three to four years."

At a regional level, Europe remained the No. 1 region with the highest percentage of mobile phone sales, and Asia/Pacific jumped to second place in 1999, ahead of the United States. However, the region showing most the impressive progress last year was Latin America, which experienced over 103 percent growth.

Dataquest research showed that growth in the mobile terminal market was fuelled by product sales at the entry-level of the market, despite the high levels of excitement surrounding WAP and other enhanced data products. Nevertheless, analysts warned that this trend should not be dismissed as mere hype.

CRTs Remain Dominant As Worldwide PC Display Market Exceeds $33B In 1999, IDC Says

The worldwide PC monitor market enjoyed healthy growth in 1999, closely mirroring advances in the overall PC market. According to new research from IDC, revenues grew 24.9 percent (year-over- year) to surpass $33 million in 1999. Cathode-ray tube (CRT)- based PC monitors continue to dominate the market, accounting for 96 percent of the 100 million PC displays shipped worldwide.

A number of trends and technological advancements emerged in 1999, including the proliferation of flat CRTs. These products, which improve the monitors' display quality, are being offered by a number of vendors, including major PC OEMs as well as monitor- specific vendors. "Once reserved for only the high end of companies' respective product lines, flat CRTs are beginning to emerge in more mainstream models," says Bob O'Donnell, research manager of IDC's PC displays and projectors program. Flat CRT technology offers one of the most obvious improvements that PC monitors have seen in some time, and we expect the marketplace to embrace them."

Another important development in the worldwide display market was the acceptance of DVI (digital visual interface) as the de facto choice of PC, graphics card, and monitor vendors for digital monitor connections. "Industry momentum started gathering behind DVI in mid-1999, and by Fall Comdex, DVI had become the obvious choice," O'Donnell said.

The fastest-growing segment in the monitor market is 19-inch CRTs. The market experienced a glut of 15-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors during 1999.

Although LCD shipments remained low, the number of businesses that opted to install at least a few LCDs monitors in highly visible areas did rise. Interest in speaker-equipped multimedia monitors is on the rise as the result of growing use of streaming media over the internet.

IDC believes 2000 will be another solid year for PC monitors, as LCD monitors begin to grab a larger portion (5.8 percent) of the overall display market.

MultiGen-Paradigm, Receives Frost & Sullivan's 2000 Market Engineering Merger & Acquisition Award

MultiGen-Paradigm, a leading supplier of realtime 3D software, has been selected by Frost & Sullivan as the winner of the 2000 Market Engineering Merger & Acquisition Award. The merger between MultiGen and Paradigm has formed one of the visual simulation software market's most dominant players. Together, their synergy creates a complete visual simulation software product line that has dominated the market since late 1998.

Today, products from the Creator Pro Series, the leading 3D database generation system for creating, editing and viewing databases for visual simulation, entertainment and urban simulation, and Vega, the industry-leading software environment for realtime visual and audio simulation, virtual reality and general visualization applications, are often found as preinstalled software image generators throughout the industry. Prior to the merger, MultiGen and Paradigm both had a strong presence in the commercial and military sectors, however, with the union, the two companies are now growing faster than either would have alone.

"In a highly dynamic marketplace that is attracting new competitors every month, the merger between MultiGen and Paradigm Simulation has established a dominant market presence in the visual simulation software industry," say Frost & Sullivan analyst Jerry Weltsch.

Dataquest Says European PC Market Experienced 18% Growth In 1999

As more consumers want to access the Internet, the European personal computer industry has benefited with shipments reaching 29.9 million units in 1999, an increase of 18 percent over 1998, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group Inc. PC shipments for the Western European home market reached 8.5 million units in 1999, up 32 percent from shipments the year before.

"1999 has been a remarkable year for home PC shipments. The image of the lone gamer, isolated and hidden away in his bedroom has changed, and we see expansive, Internet-based computing with everyone wanting to be connected, to have their own e-mail address and find out exactly how cheap airline tickets and CDs can be," says Howard Seabrook, vice president and director for Dataquest's Computer Systems and Peripherals programs. "As well as the traditional big consumer markets of Germany, France and the UK, countries such as Spain and Greece have firmly joined the home Internet revolution, giving vendors such as Packard Bell NEC a real boost."

Dell Computer showed the strongest growth among the top-tier vendors, as its European PC shipments in 1999 surpassed 2.6 million units, and it became the No. 3 vendor in the region. Fujitsu Siemens and Hewlett-Packard also sustained growth rates stronger than the overall average with shipment increases of 33 and 28 percent, respectively.

The region's PC shipments continue to be driven by Germany, the United Kingdom and France. Germany led the region with shipments of 6.6 million units in 1999, an increase of 21.6 percent from 1998 shipments. The United Kingdom was the No. 2 country with shipments of 5.5 million units, up 25.2 percent from the year before. PC shipments in France totaled 4.4 million units, which is an increase of 26.7 percent from 1998 shipments.

"Of course there were some exceptions to the pattern of an ever growing market. 1999 has been a tough year in Sweden, as the Employee Purchase Plans (EPP) of previous years have resulted in negative growth of -21.2 percent in 1999 compared to 1998," Seabrook said. "But overall, everything is pointing to a strong market at the beginning of 2000."