Nokia N' Series market growth up

MARKET: Smart mobile devices are the fastest growing consumer market in the world and it had a growth of over 100 per cent last year with over 53 million sales last year. This is expected to reach 100 million by the end of 2006 and very soon it would pass the 250 units. This is twice as fast as the personal computer market.

Speaking at the Nokia open studio launch, Nokia Director of Multi Media Computer, Asia Pacific, Steve Lewis, said that the Asian mobile market too is growing very fast and the major buyers would be from China and India. In Sri Lanka there is a vast untapped mobile market.

He said that Nokia has sold over 45 million music-enabled devises and predicted that it would soon pass the 80 million mark. It is estimated that over 150 million FM radio-enabled phones have been sold in 2005.

Nokia Director M. Jawahal said that there is a demand for more advanced versions of mobile phones and that was the reason behind the creation of Nokia N'series phones.

"There is an emerging market for camera phones and first experience for most of the digital camera users have been a mobile phone," he said.

Nokia announced three new N'series handsets - the Nokia N72, N73 and N93. He said that these products were introduced as there was a demand for high-end videos recordings and they have been well received.

He said that one of the most successful phones have been the Nokia 7610 phone and they expect the new N73 phone to be a similar phone. "Nokia N'series brings mobility to those experiences which used to be linked to a place or a single purpose device. When you have a Nokia N'series device that is always with you and connected, and also no longer you need to sit in front of your TV to watch your favourite programme or take along a separate digital camera when you go on vacation," he said. (SS)