According to researcher Gartner, sales of mobile phones are on pace to reach 1 billion units annually by 2009. Handset sales this year are tracking at 779 million units by year's end. Gartner predicts that there will be 2.6 billion cell phones in circulation by 2009, estimating that 40 percent of the world's population will own a cell phone by that time. Asian countries will play a major role in the continued growth of the handset market. Twenty-five percent of all mobile phones are currently sold in Asian countries. By the end of this decade that number will grow to one-in-three. Mobile phones are now the world's most popular personal electronics devices, outpacing cameras, PCs, and landline phones in sales.
For more on the Gartner study:
- read this piece from CNET