There was more good news for the global mobile phone market today, with research from the Japan Electronics and Information Society (JEITA), predicting worldwide demand will rise by 9.7 pc in 2003.
This follows on from last week’s study by the international data corporation (IDC) which forecast growth of just over 1pc in worldwide PC shipments for this year and more than 8pc growth next year, due to strong public sector spending and continued improvement in the consumer market.
JEITA said a gradual recovery in the global economy, demand for camera-equipped handsets and advanced wireless services will help boost the pace of growth.
It predicted that global handset demand will be 434.5 million units, up from this year’s estimated 396.1 million.
Last week market-leader Nokia’s forecasts for the market were broadly in line with this latest study, showing the global market would grow by about 10pc next year from 2002’s 400 million units.
This is despite forecasts that its own fourth quarter sales for 2002 will come in at around €9 billion and not the predicted €9.2bn.
The company’s stock fell yesterday by more than 4pc in London and nearly 3 pc in Stockholm.
China is on course to remain the biggest market in the world in 2003 at 109 million handsets, up 19.7pc, followed by the US at 46 million, up 7.8pc, according to JEITA.
For the European market, IDC said that total shipments are expected to be up less than 6pc in 2003, as PC users have resisted upgrading older systems.
By Suzanne Byrne
