Mobile sales up in Western Europe

We all know that mobile sales are going up globally, but this growth is predominantly in the developing world, where - if they were ever installed in the first place - wired infrastructures have a worrying tendency to be ripped out of the ground and sold for scrap*.

However, Q2 '07 stats just in from Gartner show an 11 percent year-on-year growth in the sale of mobile phones in Western Europe. "With rumours that the iPhone might launch in Europe as early as September, we expect more excitement in this market in the second half of the year," said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices research at Gartner.

So much for sales flattening out in Europe then. I wonder what's spurring the growth. After all, in the UK there are already two mobile subscriptions for every fixed-line subscription. I guess we all just have a burning need to have multiple handsets.

* Last year the Western Cape in South Africa - where I'm from - sold £5.5m worth of copper to China, making the metal one of the region's top exports. Not bad work, seeing as the closest copper mine is 560km away from Cape Town.