TOKYO—Japanese mobile-phone shipments in November 2001 dropped by 24.2 percent to 3.22 million units, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) announced. It is the sixth consecutive decline for mobile-phone shipments in Japan, and the second-largest drop following last October’s 28-percent drop.
JEITA attributed the significant drop in November to saturation of the cellular-phone market in Japan and to the gloomy Japanese economy, which discouraged consumers to buy new handsets.
NTT DoCoMo, the country’s largest mobile carrier, last October launched its third-generation (3G) service called FOMA. However, because the service area is limited and content is still quite poor, FOMA has failed to win many users.
