Contact:
Julian Mattocks
Phone: +43-1-81140-308
E-Mail: mattocks@pressetext.com
| Pressbox | 
|
Singapore (pte019/11.04.2005/11:45) - Asia-Pacific mobile phone sales excluding Japan rose by 24.1 per cent to 164 million handsets in 2004 on strong demand for low-tier models, according to the Gartner research house http://www.gartner.com . As the Tehran Times http://www.tehrantimes.com reports, current market leader Nokia increased its total annual sales in 2004 by 28 per cent to 50.6 million handsets, driven by the popularity of its mid- and low-tier models in emerging markets India and China, according to Gartner. "Phones with cameras and colour screens accounted for the majority of sales in the low-tier segment, slowly eroding the share of black and white display handsets," said Ann Liang, a Gartner analyst.
However, third generation (3G) handsets proved unpopular among Asians in 2004, although sales are expected to pick up this year as the technology becomes increasingly available in the region, according to Gartner. "Sales of 3G handsets were disappointing, due to a lack of popular models and with operators continuing to focus 3G marketing efforts on customers with high calling patterns," said Liang.
Nokia's market share in Asia last year was 30.8 per cent, 1 per cent higher than in 2003. Samsung was in second place in the region, with sales volumes increasing by 31 per cent to 28.2 million, or 17.1 per cent market share, according to Gartner. Motorola had the third biggest presence with sales of 18.6 million, despite losing 1.4 percentage points in the market share to fall to 11.3 per cent.
(end)
|
|
