November 22, 2006
Nearing the magic billion
This is a golden year for the cellphone industry and all who sail with it.
More than a quarter of a billion mobile phones were sold worldwide in the third quarter, according to today’s figures from Gartner, and with the holiday season ahead, there must be a chance of hitting 1bn this year for the first time.
Sales of 251m in Q3 were up 21.5 per cent on last year and Gartner raised its full-year forecast to 986m units, with 281m forecast in Q4.
For chipmakers, it has been nothing but good news for the likes of Texas Instruments, the biggest supplier of chips for cellphones, and Qualcomm.
But this may be the best of times as slower growth lies ahead, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. It predicted last month annual growth of around 16 per cent this year will have declined to 3 per cent by 2011, when 1.255bn phones will be sold.
"The growth in developing markets such as India, China and Latin America is impressive but we are not seeing the same levels of phone take-up per capita," said Dave McQueen, Principal Analyst.
"With handset sales in saturated developed markets being much slower and reliant on replacement of old models, the net effect is a major slowdown in overall rate of growth from next year."
Chris Nuttall, San Francisco
