Mobile phone sales will reach 1.28B in 2008

Research firm Gartner says that worldwide mobile phone sales will top 1.28 billion units in 2008, an 11 percent increase over last year.  Handset sales reached 294.3 million in first quarter 2008 and the analyst firm expects sales in the second quarter to be between 300 million and 305 million. For the third quarter, Gartner expects a slight increase in sales over second quarter but only slight because both Motorola and LG issued warnings about a sequential drop in sales.

Gartner predicts handset makers will rely more on emerging markets to reach their growth projections. The firm expects Asia-Pacific to have a 17.9 percent increase in mobile phone sales in 2008 reaching 472.5 million. Meanwhile, Western Europe will experience a 1.5 percent decline from last year to reach 188 million in sales. North America will have a decline of 5.3 percent to reach 185.7 million in sales.

Avian Securities analyst Matt Thornton concurs with Gartner. He believes that mobile phone sales will reach nearly 1.3 billion units in 2008 and average selling prices (ASP) for phones will decline 8 percent year-over-year as sales shift to higher growth emerging markets.

For more:
- see this press release

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