Call lost: Global cell phone sales set to slow down
Mobile phone sales growth globally will slow in ’06 before easing further to single-digit percentage levels next year, as saturation in developed markets outweighs booming growth in emerging markets, according to a research report released on Tues...
By Agencies |
LONDON: Mobile phone sales growth globally will slow in ’06 before easing further to single-digit percentage levels next year, as saturation in developed markets outweighs booming growth in emerging markets, according to a research report released on Tuesday.
The report by London-based Informa Telecoms & Media forecast mobile handset sales rising to 943m units in ’06 from 814.4m last year, and crossing the 1-bn mark next year to reach 1.03bn.
“But this year is going to be the last year of double-digit growth,” David McQueen, principal analyst at Informa and one of the report’s main authors, said.
According to Informa, handset sales growth year-on-year in ’07 will slow to 9.2% from 16% the year before. For ’06-11, it has forecast a compound annual growth rate of 7.5%, compared with the over 20% growth seen in the preceding three years.
In ’05 the handset market grew around 25%. In August this year, research group Gartner said growth in the global mobile phone market slowed in the second quarter, rising only 18.3% year-on-year compared with 23.8% in the preceding quarter.
With growth set to slow, Informa forecast consolidation among smaller handset makers, especially in China where there are more than 50 manufacturers, most of them operating on very thin margins, Informa analysts said.
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The next couple of years would see 3G gaining critical mass, Informa said, adding that it expected 25% of all phones sold in ’08 would be 3G handsets and by ’11, 53% of all handsets sold would be 3G phones.
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