Mobile phone sales set for biggest ever month
Analyst claims shipments up by a fifth thanks to replacement handsets and take up of new technology
Mobile phone sales have mushroomed and the next quarter could be the biggest selling ever, according to market watcher Gartner.
Worldwide mobile phone shipments increased by 22 per cent in the third quarter of 2005 and Gartner predicted that handset sales will reach 810 million units this year.
Motorola experienced the biggest market share jump in the third quarter, rising from 13.5 per cent to 18.7 per cent, but Nokia still leads the market with a 32.6 per cent slice.
Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst at Gartner, said: “We are seeing continued growth in the mature markets, with a high degree of replacement phones and growth from emerging markets.”
Milanesi said that Gartner has revised its 2005 prediction and expected 10 to 15 per cent more growth next year.
“The UK is in line with other key European markets with good replacement sales. The only thing missing is 3G sales, where Q3 was better, but things are not as positive as phone vendors had hoped,” Milanesi added.
Sam Sandercock, head of channel sales at Orange, said: “Sales are being driven by people replacing phones and buying new smart phones.”
Sandercock claimed that 3G phones have developed into the market and a greater degree of workers at the higher end of businesses are now interested.
Pierre Lams, co-founder at reseller Handheld PCs, said: “The new smart phones can offer more. Businesses are deploying them to workers who previously hadn’t had them.”
Lams said the rise was also a combination of customers upgrading their mobile phones to smart phones, and new users attracted to the continuing advances in technology.
“I’m not surprised [about the low number of 3G shipments], we are only just discovering the 3G benefits such as videoconferencing for education and training used by engineers on site,” added Lams.