Colour screens help boost Finnish Sept phone sales
Monday October 7, 7:22 am ET
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HELSINKI, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Sales of mobile phones to retailers in Finland rose for the fourth month in a row in September, helped by consumer interest in colour screen phones and fast data services, a Finnish electronics association said on Monday.
Industry analysts and phone makers watch Finland closely for trends in mobile phone sales as the country, which is home to Nokia (NOK1V.HE), has one of the most mature handset markets with high penetration levels and user fondness for mobile data services.
Wholesalers, including manufacturers Nokia, Motorola (NYSE:MOT - News) and Siemens (XETRA:SIEGn.DE - News), saw sales to retailers last month rise 33.3 percent year-on-year to 106,250 units, the Finnish Mobile Communication Suppliers Association said in a statement.
"Colour screens was one important factor and people are also changing their old phones for new ones," said Pentti Karhu, chief executive of the association.
He said services that cater for so-called GPRS phones, which offer faster access to data and the ability to download games and read news, were finally good enough to attract consumers.
"It's the fourth good month so things are looking up. Maybe we'll sell even more than 1.2 million handsets this year in Finland," Karhu said.
He said there was also evidence that an increasing number of people were disconnecting their home fixed-line phone and instead only using mobile phones.
The positive uptake of colour screen phones in recent months, including devices from Sony Ericsson (Tokyo:6758.T - News; Stockholm:ERICb.ST - News), Samsung Electronics (KSE:05930.KS - News) and Nokia, has made some investment banks and manufacturers more positive that annual global handset sales will hit 400 million units in 2002.
The association said that January-September sales were up five percent year-on-year 811,862 units.
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