Mobile phone sales hits 98 million
Ninety eight million mobile phones were sold worldwide between March and June, according to figures released last week.
Latest analyst research from Dataquest, a research arm of GartnerGroup, found that "Big Three" manufacturers dominated the global mobile phones market in the second quarter of 2000. Nokia sold nearly 27 million handsets, with Motorola selling 15 million and Ericsson over 10 million. Over half of all handsets sold in Q2 2000 were manufactured by one of these three companies.
According to senior Dataquest analyst Bryan Prohn, the mobile phone market will continue to mature and become more competitive. "Mainstream market stability should return early in 2001, after the changeover to WAP and next-generation products gains momentum," he said. "The shift to lower-end phones continues to lower barriers to market entry. There are now more competitive share players in each major regional sector than in past year," he added.
Dataquest expects 420 million mobile phones to be sold in the whole of 2000.
See techTrader for more technology investment news, plus quotes and research.
To have your say online click on the TalkBack button and go to the ZDNet News forum.
What do you think? Tell the Mailroom. And read what others have said.