350,000 mobile phones sold in Russia in 2004

Mobile devices flew off the shelves in Russia in 2004. According to IDC, shipments expanded by 55.5% to more than 350,000 units and revenue by 56% to $163.59 mln. A combination of plummeting prices and intense marketing by major vendors helped boost the market last year. With Russia still far from saturation, shipments of mobile devices will expand by 62.7% in 2005 and by 55.9% in 2006. Converged devices (those with mobile phone functionality) dominated the Russian market in 2004, accounting for 62.6% of total shipments. Keypad-only devices proved to be the most popular, representing 70.2% of the converged form factor last year. By contrast, keyboard-based non-converged devices vanished from the market altogether in favor of pen-based devices. While IDC expects shipments of both form factors to increase over the next few years, the converged devices segment will grow almost nine times faster than the non-converged segment.