Asia's mobile phone growth likely to rebound next year
But the Singapore market will stay almost flat in the next two years, says Gartner study
September 27, 2001
By
Chua Hui Min
THE growth in Asia-Pacific cell phone shipments - which fell from 35 per cent last year to 10 per cent this year - will rebound to 23 per cent next year, driven by continued growth in China, Thailand and India, says Gartner Inc. This translates to an expected 170 million handsets shipped next year, up from about 140 million this year.
'We expect the recovery to be fairly rapid, because phones are not designed to last as long as some other electronic devices like TV sets,' said Bertrand Bidaud, Gartner's director for Asia-Pacific telecoms research. 'So the replacement cycle is shorter.'
In mature Asia-Pacific markets, Gartner also expects demand to be spurred by the introduction of new features like colour screens and user interfaces.
'In Singapore, the market will be almost flat in the next two years. We expect a small decline this year, from the 1.53 million units shipped here last year,' Mr Bidaud said.
'However, new technology and the replacement of old handsets should lead to a recovery in 2003.'
In mature GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) markets like Singapore, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) - which offers data delivery speeds of up to 115 kbps, compared to GSM's 9.6 kbps - will be significant next year, he said.
To make the switch to GPRS attractive for consumers, telcos in Singapore need to be more active in promoting the service, and to ensure that content from a wide variety of providers are available to their subscribers, Mr Bidaud said.
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