Nokia raised its forecast for the global mobile-phone market this year by 15 percent or more as developing regions continue to outperform expectations. Analysts have predicted the handset market would grow around 11 percent to 12 percent in 2006. Still, the news shouldn't be that encouraging to investors since emerging markets mean bigger sales of lower-priced handsets that don't bring in high revenues. Nokia saw prices fall quite aggressively in the fourth quarter because its product mix was geared toward low-end models. Separately, Nokia announced it lowest-priced handset yet, the Nokia 112, which is targeted at first-time users in emerging markets and costs about $54 before operator subsidies.
To read more about Nokia's forecast for global handset sales:
- check out this article from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)