"Big Three" Handset Manufacturers Dominate Mobile Phone SalesThe worldwide mobile phone market, increasingly reaping the benefits of the proliferation of the wireless Web, remains on pace to exceed 420 million units by the end of this year, a US market research firm reported Friday.Dataquest estimated that worldwide shipments of cellular phones reached 98 million handsets in the second quarter. The "Big Three" handset manufacturers, Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson, had a dominant combined market share of 53 percent in cell phone sales during the quarter. According to some industry estimates, mobile phone makers sold about 270 million handsets worldwide last year. Early forecasts from chip customers place cell phone shipments in 2001 at 600 to 650 million units. "Comprehensive changes are taking place in key global markets that comprise much of the annual and quarterly volume, from second generation voice-centric handsets to data-enabled devices of varying flavors," Dataquest said. Mainstream market stability should return early in 2001, the firm said, after the changeover to wireless application protocol (WAP) and next generation products gain momentum. |
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