Sales of mobile phone handsets will increase to a massive 850 million units this year, according to a survey by analyst iSuppli. This is up from c. 810 million units in 2005, but a massive doubling of the market size since 2002.
This makes the mobile handset business simply the biggest consumer electronics category in the world. As a comparison, TV sets sell a mere 200 million units.
All is not quite sweetness and light however as the total market by value is expected to drop this year as the average price per handset falls. However, they expect this to stabilise in 2007, followed by a period of renewed growth.
Image from Oxfam.
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