Mobile phone sales totalled 104.3 million units in the third quarter of 2002, a 7.8% increase from the same period last year, according to a new report from Gartner Dataquest.
This higher-than-expected increase is a timely boost for the industry as the crucial Christmas period approaches. It will also be of interest to researchers and handset producers who are busy assessing the market prospects for advanced phones (see
‘Smart’ Phones To Shake Up Mobile Sector, Says Analysys).
“This is only the second time ever that the third quarter has realised mobile terminal sales volume in excess of 100 million units,” said Bryan Prohm, senior analyst with the Mobile Communications Worldwide research group for Gartner Dataquest. “The most encouraging development was that each of the six principal geographic regions tracked by Gartner Dataquest recorded a sequential increase in demand.”
The limited availability of advanced handsets and the prevailing economic uncertainty had led many manufacturers and analysts to scale back their growth projections for 2002. However, there are now signs of recovery in key European countries (see European Mobile Industry Given Fresh Boost) and with new models set to be unleashed on the market, the outlook for next year looks more positive.
“The highly penetrated nature of the Western European market means that future mobile terminals sales growth must now come from replacement purchases,” said Ben Wood, senior analyst for Gartner Dataquest in Europe. “The combination of colour, cameras and content will drive this replacement cycle in the next eighteen months. Mobile terminal manufacturers will need to continually innovate to avoid a Western European market characterised by cyclical demand in coming years.”
