Mobile-phone sales popped in the second quarter to 190.5 million units, up from 157.6 million units sold in the same quarter of 2004, according to research and consulting firm Gartner Inc. The firm said demand for phones continued unabated across much of the world.
“All the regions recorded growth this quarter, apart from Japan that saw a small decline in demand compared to the second quarter in 2004,” said Carolina Milanesi, Gartner’s principal phone analyst. “The sales in the mature markets of Western Europe and North America were driven primarily by sales of phones as replacements for older models and, to a lesser extent, by first-time buyers. In the emerging markets, growth was boosted by an uptake in new connections as consumers took advantage of falling average selling prices of mobile phones.”
Echoing similar research from other firms, Gartner said Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. scored the largest gains, accounting for almost half of all the phones sold in the world. Nokia came in first in Latin America and improved its position in North America to third place. Motorola was the best-selling phone maker in North America and came in second behind Nokia in Western Europe. In the same quarter a year ago, Motorola was fifth in the Western European market.
Mobile-phone sales in North America totaled nearly 35.5 million units in the second quarter, an increase of 9.4 percent from the second quarter of last year. Gartner analysts said this was a new record of unit sales for a second quarter in the region.
