Mobile Phone Handset Sales To Top 1.2 Billion

Informa forecasts that the number of handsets shipped will rise from 814.4 million at the end of 2005 to 1.25 billion by 2011.

The report shows that the growth in developing markets such as India, China and Latin America, although impressive, has yet to reach full saturation.

As handset sales in saturated markets are much slower and reliant on replacement of old models, the net effect is a major slowdown in overall rate of growth from 2007.

Informa says that the double digit growth which the worldwide handset market has enjoyed year-on-year since the turn of the century will slow from 2007 onwards, seeing annual growth rates decline from 15.7% in 2006 to 3% in 2011.

According to Informa’s findings, 9.6% (120.1 million) of all handsets sold will be equipped with broadcast mobile TV capability in 2011, with China and South Korea dominating this sector over the coming years. However, by 2011 the US, China and Europe will have also grown to be key.

Informa believes that the number of handsets sold with music capabilities will rise from 69.8 million in 2005 to 126.1 million in 2006, an 80% increase. 2011 is predicted to see 55% of all handsets sold enabled with music playback functionality.

In addition, cameraphones are forecast to represent 81% of total handset market sales by 2011, with Informa saying that the cameraphone market is still a major growth area.

Asia-Pacific has been the world’s largest handset market over the past four years, with sales estimated at 287.8 million in 2005. Informa predicts that growth in the region will continue dramatically over the next five years as penetration is still relatively low.

Meanwhile, North American handset sales reached 120.1 million in 2005, with a period of extensive network transition plus many new handset models expected to continue this in the short term.

Worldwide Handset Sales (m) 2005-2011