Mobile sales will be maintained at 121 million says Market Research Firm
At the end of 2009, revised numbers are being projected for mobile handset sales. Gartner, the Market Research firm had earlier estimated a decline in sales of up to 3.7%. However, with good sales in Western Europe, this decline seems to have been overcome.
The revised estimates declare a flat growth rate. In 2010 however, this figure is optimistic at 9%, and expected to be more from growing markets rather than the mature ones.
According to Gartner's Research Director, Carolina Milanesi, Nokia and Apple are going to face stiff competition from the grey markets in target countries like Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Latin America. Just like the Chinese grey market dealers, here too the threat is from manufacturers who do not have a license to sell and manufacture devices without a valid international mobile equipment identity.
She says, "The grey market will affect Nokia's market share the most." Smartphones are expected to do very well as long as the mobile operators keep a check on the high and flat-rate data plans which tend to make the phone unaffordable. More so, with the extreme competition causing average selling price to fall, she says, "Software, services and content will be much bigger drivers than hardware, pushing traditional mobile phone vendors to reinvent themselves to remain at the top of their game,"
