FALLS CHURCH, Va.-Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. last year captured more than 60 percent of the $117 billion in worldwide handset revenue, according to a report by Telecom Trends International Inc. Sony Ericsson placed fourth in terms of revenue. The global revenue total was based on shipments of 815 million handsets.
The report projects that global handset revenue will peak in two years at $130 billion, then begin to decline as device prices fall to $125 billion in 2012. Unit shipments, however, are expected to double by 2012 to 1.7 billion handsets, two-thirds of which will serve the replacement market.
Due to falling prices, revenue growth is forecast to lag behind shipment growth in the six-year period covered by the report, according to Naqi Jaffery, principal at Telecom Trends International.
