Cellular Handset Market Continues Double Digit Annual Growth

January 22, 2007

Unit sales of mobile handsets in 2006 increased almost 20%, and will continue with double-digit growth for the next five years, reports In-Stat. This growth occurred because of growing penetration within developing countries, the popularity of prepaid service plans, and the continued rollout of higher speed data networks.

A recent report by the high-tech market research firm found the following:

- Global penetration of handsets per population will increase from 25% to 50% by 2011.

- The size of the wireless handset market now exceeds US$144B; by 2011 it will increase to US$200B.

- The replacement handset rate now exceeds the new handset market for the first time.

The research, "2006 Mobile Phone Market Forecast", covers the market for global wireless handsets. It features five-year unit and revenue forecasts by air-link technology and by geographic region. It includes analysis of regional markets including growth of the subscriber base.