Cape Town, 01 Jun 2005
The advent of 3G mobile services may mean new impetus for some brands, including Sharp, which was last seen in this country in the mid-1990s, says Leon Perlman, Wireless Applications Service Providers Association chairman.
Perlman was commenting on a report by international research firm Gartner that says the worldwide mobile phone industry had a record first quarter in 2005, with sales totalling 180.6 million units, a rise of 17% on an annual basis.
According to Gartner, the previous high for mobile phone sales was 153.7 million units in the first quarter of 2004. The research firm`s analysts say mobile phone sales grew in all regions.
Ben Wood, research VP for mobile terminals research at Gartner, says in the mature markets of Western Europe and North America, replacement sales ensured a buoyant performance. In addition, rapid growth in emerging markets, notably Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, further bolstered global sales.
Perlman says Sharp should be ready to make a comeback due to its products receiving the Vodafone branding as part of its Vodafone Live 3G and GPRS marketing drive. There is also a small chance that Panasonic will re-enter the country.
He notes that phone manufacturers "will be bucking for market share as some of the smaller players start making inroads into the market. For instance, in the high-end part of the market where phones overlap with PDAs, we see the likes of iMate (the Microsoft-supported phone) making inroads. This is typical where we find manufacturers putting more features into a smaller phone."
[TABLE]Gartner says Nokia`s global market share grew despite poor performance in North America.
"The company [Nokia] did particularly well in Asia/Pacific, especially in mainland China where aggressive pricing, significant investments in marketing and its distribution network delivered sales of more than 5.6 million units," says Ann Liang, principal analyst for mobile terminals in Asia Pacific at Gartner.
"Nokia`s deep price-cutting has allowed them to make up the slight loss in market share they experienced last year," says Perlman.
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