Handset Growth Could Slow
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Nokia, Samsung dominate mobile market, which sold more than 300 million handsets in the fourth quarter, IDC analysts say.
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Uncertainty about how to secure mobile phones in the face of increasing threats is slowing enterprise adoption of mobile applications, experts exhibiting at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona this week said.
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(InfoWorld) - Worldwide mobile phone sales grew 21.5 percent year on year to 251 million units in the third quarter, with India and China driving growth, according to research from Gartner Inc. Gartner predicts that sales for the year will fall just shy of one billion phones. Sales should reach 986 million units by the end of the year, the research group said. Europe, one of the most mature mobile phone markets in the world, showed just 1.9 percent growth over the same quarter last year. Asia Pacific experienced the most dramatic gains, with sales of 80.8 million units during the third quarter, an increase of 54.7 percent over the same period last year. That significant growth happened despite a decline in sales of 4.7 percent in Japan compared to the third quarter in 2005. An increase in retail outlets and better distribution channels in emerging markets such as Indonesia, Philippines, and India significantly offset that loss though, driving growth in the region. Other regions of the world also reported solid growth. In Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, sales grew 19 percent compared to last year, to 48 million phones. North American sales reached 40.8 million units, up 12 percent. Sales in Latin America grew 13.7 percent over the same time last year, to 29.8 million phones. Gartner reported that the smaller phone makers will increasingly struggle to compete against the giants. In the third quarter, Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung Electronics together accounted for 68 percent of phone sales. Among those three, competition is fierce. While Motorola increased its market share during the quarter, it lost its number one position in Latin America, to Nokia, and also lost its number two spot in Western Europe, to Samsung. Nokia has the largest market share worldwide, but failed to grow its market share in North America during the quarter. Nokia's worldwide market share was 35.1 percent, up from 32.5 percent in the same quarter last year. Motorola had 20.6 percent, compared to 18.7 percent during the third quarter in 2005. No. 3 vendor Samsung had 12.2 percent market share, just slightly down from 12.5 percent last year.
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Demand for mobile phones remains &quot;robust&quot; according to the latest update from retailer Carphone Warehouse. In the 13 weeks to 25 September, the firm saw connections grow by 25% on the same period a year ago to 1.55 million.
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Global mobile phone sales rose by a robust 17.4 percent to nearly 271 million handsets in the second quarter, driven by dizzying sales growth of more than 40 percent in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the latest data from research firm Gartner. Moreover, Gartner now predicts that worldwide mobile phone sales will reach 1.13 billion units for the entire year.
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(InfoWorld) - Indiaâs mobile handset production is growing fast, fueled by rapid growth in the number of mobile subscribers in the country. India produced nearly 31 million mobile phones last year, at a value of about US$5 billion, according to a report by Gartner Inc. The research firm expects production volumes to reach nearly 95 million, and to register a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25 percent between 2006 and 2011. Growth in handset production in India this year, at 68 percent by units and 65 percent by value, is forecast to be the highest in the Asia-Pacific region, Gartner said. Mobile phone manufacturing was the largest contributor to the country's overall electronics production revenue last year, and to the total available market (TAM) for semiconductors, Gartner said. Indiaâs mobile market is booming. The country added 6.57 million mobile subscribers in May this year, taking the total number of subscribers to 178 million, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in Delhi. The country added 6.11 million new mobile subscribers in April. A number of multinational handset makers, including Nokia Corp., have set up manufacturing facilities in India. Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications A.B. is outsourcing mobile phone manufacturing to the operations in Chennai of Flextronics Corp. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd, which uses the brand name Foxconn. The decision by these vendors to make phones locally was also influenced by the decision of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), a large government-owned services provider, to insist on local manufacture by its suppliers. While the top five handset makers worldwide will retain a major share of production volume, local manufacturers are expected to capture up to a fifth of India's overall mobile phone production volume by the end of 2011, Gartner said. Growing demand for low-cost and ultra-low-cost mobile phones, and the need for EMS (electronics manufacturing services) vendors to reduce their revenue exposure to large multinational vendors, will contribute to the growth of local-brand mobile phones in the Indian market, it added. Reliance Communications Ltd., a large Indian services provider, already offers its own brand mobile phones, called the Classic range. The products are currently being customized and made by contract manufacturers outside India, a company spokesman said Monday. A low-cost model launched by Reliance at about US$19 in May sold one million units in the first week, he added. The spokesman did not however comment on whether Reliance had plans to move manufacturing to India.
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Japanese-Swedish mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson said on Tuesday it expects slower growth in the global handset market next year.
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These cell-phone boosters promise more stable calls, but how much improvement can consumers expect?
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The boom in mobile ringtones may be waning with the UK market set to shrink 20% in 2006, research suggests.
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Samsung Electronics plans to enter the lower-end market for mobile phone handsets to compete more effectively with Nokia, the market leader.
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If a technology currently in development pans out, one handset could work on multiple cellular networks.
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Feeling guilty that you&#39;ve just thrown away your umpteenth mobile phone to get the latest handset? Soon you may be able to plant your old one and watch it grow into a flower.
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Not since the introduction of the cell phone has the plain old home phone been in for such upheaval. The device long used for landline calling, recording voice mails, and storing phone lists may find itself replaced.
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Handsets get even thinner, more versatile.
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A Nokia executive claims that its ongoing patent battle with Qualcomm may slow adoption of 3G cellular data technologies.
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Although mobile phones have long been a part of the business community, they are quietly becoming entrenched in personal lives.
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The global market for mobile telephones grew sharply in fourth quarter 2004, with sales up by 25 percent to a record 200 million units from the same period of 2003, but overall sector growth should slow in 2005, the research group Strategy Analytics reported.