Mobile Phones Sales Up in Q4Mobile Phones Sales Up in Q4

Worldwide mobile phone shipments increased 29.7% in Q4 to 167.8M units and 23.3% for the year to 533.7M units, according to IDC

February 3, 2004

2 Min Read

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- The worldwide market for mobile phones continued to expand in the fourth quarter of 2003, spurred to a record high by strong sales in all regions. According to IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone QView, worldwide mobile phone shipments grew by 29.7% year-over-year in 4Q03 and increased sequentially by 21.8% to 167.8 million units.

The fourth quarter of 2003 closed out a particularly strong year for the worldwide mobile phone market as handset sales topped half a billion units shipped for the first time in the market's history. Shipments grew 23.3% from 432.7 million devices shipped worldwide in 2002 to 533.4 million handsets in 2003.

"Worldwide mobile phone manufacturers grew their sales by tapping into robust demand in emerging markets in Asia and Eastern Europe. In addition to driving increased sales, first-time buyers' preference for more expensive midrange and high-end mobile phones helped to drive additional revenue to phone manufacturers," said David Linsalata, analyst in IDC's Mobile Devices program. "Additionally, North American and Western European consumers elected to replace their existing handsets with new 2.5G models as the need for 3G remains unproven."

Contained within the volume of worldwide mobile phone shipments, the market for converged mobile devices, or "smartphones," showed significant growth and future promise. In the fourth quarter of 2003, the worldwide converged mobile device market grew 182.3% year-over-year and 77.4% sequentially to 3.7 million units. Strong sales during the fourth quarter drove worldwide shipments for 2003 up 181.6% year-over-year to 9.6 million devices.

"As new devices from Research in Motion (RIM) and newly-reformed palmOne reach market, consumers and enterprises alike are experiencing a fresh take on data-centric converged mobile devices," said Linsalata. "Simultaneously, voice-centric converged mobile devices based on a range of software platforms and available in variety of form factors are seeing significant growth as vendors such as Nokia and Motorola weave imaging and data capabilities with proven telephony experience to form significantly improved devices."

IDC

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