teleguy
Enthusiast
Oct 28, 2005, 11:54 AM
Post #1 of 1
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Mobile phone makers are expected to sell more than 800M units this year
OCTOBER 25, 2005 - The world's mobile phone makers are expected to sell more than 800 million units this year, up from earlier estimates of around 775 million sales of handsets, top cell phone market research firms said today.
Booming demand in emerging markets and replacement sales in rich countries pushed third-quarter sales to 209 million units, according to Strategy Analytics Inc. The research firm said global shipments for the first nine months of the year totaled 566 million handsets -- and that figure doesn't include sales from the traditionally strong fourth quarter.
"We're fairly confident it will exceed 800 million this year," said analyst Neil Mawston, an analyst at Boston-based Strategy Analytics.
Another market research firm, Gartner Inc., said it would also increase its forecast for cell phone sales in the coming days but declined to give details. "In any case, it will be higher than 800 million," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.
Last year's sales were around 680 million units, and analysts have been forced to upgrade their market forecasts throughout the year as a result of strong sales, fueled partly by the emergence of very cheap models that have opened up new customer segments in developing nations where many people previously couldn't afford cell phones.
In the third quarter, cheaper models and competition pushed the average selling price per phone down to $146, which is 11% lower than it was in the same period a year earlier.
The cell phone market is on track for $120 billion in total annual wholesale revenues this year, Strategy Analytics said.
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