Mobile phones grow faster than predicted
Handset sales powered by take-up in emerging markets, says analyst
Mobile phone sales in 2006 will rise to 986 million, according to a report from research group Gartner.
The analyst has seen stronger than expected sales of 251 million mobiles in the third quarter of the year, 21.4 per cent rise on the same period last year.
The rise came in spite of a slow down in the sales of replacement handsets to existing customers.
Instead, the slowdown was offset by extra momentum in sales to first-time buyers in emerging markets such as India and China, says Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.
'We have also started to see increasing sales of replacement models in these emerging market, which helped push up total sales in the third quarter,' she said.
Other developing areas to see high mobile phone purchase growth included Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where sales grew by 19 per cent over the same time last year and Latin America, which rose by 13.7 per cent.
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