SAN JOSE, California, United States—For the first time in its history, the mobile-phone industry experienced a drop in unit sales in 2001, according to Dataquest.
Worldwide mobile-phone sales totaled nearly 399.6 million units in 2001, a decline of 3.2 percent from 2000 sales. Worldwide handset sales between 1996 and 2000 experienced a compound annual growth rate of about 60 percent, said the research firm.
“The removal of prepaid subsidies supporting mobile terminal sales in historically high-growth markets like Western Europe and Latin America was a significant factor in the decline in handset sales in 2001,” said Bryan Prohm, senior analyst with the mobile communications worldwide research group at Gartner Dataquest. “Additionally, unexpectedly strong growth in Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)-only subscriptions gave rise to a burgeoning market for second-hand terminals across the developing world.”
General Packet Radio Service (GRPS) handsets also failed to live up to expectations in 2001, said Dataquest.
