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Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users surpassed 1.15 billion units in 2007, a 16 percent increase from 2006 sales of 990.9 million, according to Gartner. Mobile phone sales at the end of the year were consistent with the yearly trend, as fourth quarter sales reached 330 million units. "Emerging markets, especially China and India, provided much of the growth as many people bought their first phone," says Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner, based in Egham, UK. "In mature markets, such as Japan and Western Europe, consumers' appetite for feature-laden phones was met with new models packed with TV tuners, global positioning satellite (GPS) functions, touch screens and high-resolution cameras." "After another strong year, we expect the growth in sales of mobile devices to end users will decelerate in 2008 and fall to about 10 percent growth as mature markets become more saturated," adds Ms Milanesi. "However, the global mobile devices market will remain relatively immune to a recession in the US and Western European economies as the majority of growth in 2008 will come from emerging markets. The mature Western Europe and North America markets are driven by operator contract terms and replacement cycles and will account for just 30 percent of the global mobile devices market in 2008." "Phone manufacturers need to continuously adapt their portfolios to respond to operators' demands for open platforms, lower pricing and more personalization," recommended Ms Milanesi. "They should also try to meet consumers' desires for fashionable, easy-to-use phones." In Asia/Pacific, 112 million mobile devices were sold in the fourth quarter of 2007, representing 9.6 percent growth over the previous quarter. Over the holiday season, operators and distributors offered a wide range of mobile phone options at reasonable prices, tempting new users to sign up to service plans. "Driving factors for growth in emerging markets in Asia/Pacific included huge numbers of new subscribers, lower-priced phones based on wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) technology, as well as ultra-low-cost CDMA phones and low-cost global system for mobile (GSM) phones," says Ann Liang, Gartner principal research analyst for mobile terminals, based in Taipei. In Japan, sales to end users numbered 12.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2007, a decrease of 3.6 percent year-on-year. Strong sales in the early part of the year brought total sales in 2007 to a record high of 52.3 million units — more than in 2003, when many Japanese bought their first camera phones. "In 2007, music player functions and embedded TV-tuners with large, high-resolution displays persuaded users to replace their devices," says Nahoko Mitsuyama, principal analyst for mobile communications research at Gartner, based in Tokyo. |
