Mobile Phone Makers Target India And China For Future Growth

Electronic News: Global mobile phone companies are targeting India and China for growth since the developed nations have already saturated. Mobile phone production in Q1 was 173 million units, down 13 percent from 200 million units in Q4 2004, but up 2.4 percent compared to the 169.5 million units in Q1 2004, the El Segundo, Calif.-based research firm iSuppli Corp said.
After rising 25 percent in 2004, mobile-phone unit production growth will taper off this year as production rises to 750 million units for the year, up about 5 percent from 713 million units in 2004, iSuppli predicted. Given that mobile phone production growth is driven by purchases by new subscribers and by buying of replacement handsets, combined with the fact that some regions of the world are becoming saturated, developing nations such as China and India are expected to continue to see strong subscriber growth, the firm noted.
Meanwhile in another report in Mobilemag, Philips is said to be trying to lower handset costs to less than $20 as part of efforts to tap the 3.3 billion potential customers in India, China, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe. As a first step, Philips has launched the Nexperia Cellular System Solution 5130. It is a sub-$5 system solution that integrates all the electronics needed for a mobile phone.

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