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| Friday, 6 February 2004 |
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Mobile handset sales topped 510m units in 2003 Global mobile phone sales exceeded over half a billion units last year as emerging markets recorded strong growth in new subscribers and as users in established western countries upgraded to the latest handsets with colour screens and in-built cameras. Gartner on Tuesday predicted that handset sales for 2003 looked set to exceed 510m units, up almost 20 per cent on 2002. The technology research house also raised its target for total sales in 2004 to 560 million, citing continued strong positive sales trends in January. "2003 was a phenomenal year for the mobile phone industry," said Ben Wood, analyst at Gartner. "India was spectacular and Brazil has shown tremendous growth. In mature markets, replacement sales were the strongest driver of growth in 2003. Colour screens and camera phones were high on consumers' shopping lists." Gartner had predicted 9 million handset sales in India last year but the actual figure was double this at 18 million as new subscribers snapped up mainly low-cost voice-only mobile phones. Similar trends emerged in markets such as China and Russia. Gartner predicted continued strong growth in emerging markets encouraging handset makers to continue to develop low cost phones. The buoyant replacement cycle in western Europe, the US and parts of Asia has enabled leading handset makers to increase sales of high-end colour screen phones. Nokia has said that over half of all its handsets sold in mature markets last year incorporated colour screens. Similar trends have been experienced by handset makers such as Samsung and Sony Ericsson. In Japan, where mobile operators have been leading the charge into next generation services such as live video calling and wireless internet access, Gartner said handset sales had exceeded its expectations by 10 million units, boding well for the adoption of third generation services elsewhere in 2004. Gartner had been expecting 9.5 million handsets running on W-CDMA, the dominant European 3G technology standard, to be sold in 2004. But following robust demand for 3G services in Japan it said it now expected this figure would be higher. Wood said he expected most of the major handset makers would launch 3G phones in the next couple of months with delivery volumes rising in the second half of the year. CNA. |
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