Gartner expects the number of mobile phones sold worldwide to climb 11% this year and sets the growth figure for Africa at 16%.
The research house says 1.15 billion units were sold worldwide last year - 71.5 million in Africa. It believes this will climb to 1.28 billion phones this year, with 85.7 million of these sold on the mother continent.
Gartner adds that worldwide mobile phone sales in the first quarter of 2008 reached 294.3 million. Second quarter sales are expected to tally between 300 million and 305 million units, when all the numbers are in.
"For the second half of the year, we expect sales in the third quarter to be more than the second quarter results, but only moderately as both Motorola and LG issued warnings for a sequential drop in sales, as well as an economic environment that remains challenging," says mobile devices research director Carolina Milanesi.
"All the hopes for mobile phone manufacturers for the overall year-end growth results rest on the final quarter of the year when most new products will be introduced to the market and the normal seasonality will help boost sales."
She also expects mobile phone sales growth to increasingly rely on emerging markets as mature regions, such as Western Europe, Japan and North America reach saturation.
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