Nokia Sees 70 Million 3G Users by End 2005

February 16, 2005 - source: BWCS

The world's biggest handset maker has chosen the first day of the world's biggest mobile get-together to confidently predict that there will be 70 million 3G mobile phone users by the end of this year. This compares to the 16 million the Finnish giant counted at the end of 2004. The Finns also took the opportunity to announce a major mobile music tie up with US software behemoth Microsoft.

With Nokia's forecast for the number of mobile users worldwide at the end of 2005 currently standing at 2 billion - its predictions for 3G, while showing a healthy growth rate on last year, still means that only 3.5% of the world's mobile subscribers will be using such phones by the end of this year. The majority of new mobile users, Nokia says, will come from Africa and other under-developed markets.

The projections are certainly gung-ho, but few would choose to argue with the company that commands 34% of the global market for handsets. However, in the years after 2006 the Finnish vendor believes that mobile growth will slow and that it will take until 2010 until the global figure of 3 billion mobile users is broken.

The company took the opportunity of its address to the great and the good of the mobile industry at Cannes, to highlight its recent deal with Microsoft. The agreement will mean that music tracks can be more easily transferred between a user's mobile handset and their computer. Nokia will use Microsoft's Windows Media player for its new mobile music technology offering, which was launched yesterday.