Not so fast, wr. How can you write off the prospects for 1X when demand for it has been red hot wherever its been introduced? Brational posted the following on the Moderated thread.It contradicts your view on this. Remember that Japan and Korea, where 1x demand is so strong, are two of the most mature mobile phone markets in the world. Take a read and tell me what you think.
New Japan Handset Market Forecast by Gartner
07/23 02:24
Japan's Handset Market to Grow After 2001 Decline, Gartner Says
By Keiko Kambara
Tokyo, July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Mobile-phone sales in Japan will grow in the next five years after a decline in 2001 as consumers replace their handsets with camera phones and high-speed models, market researcher Gartner Japan Ltd. said.
Handset sales will increase 5.3 percent by volume and 11.7 percent by value annually on average between this year and 2006, Nahoko Mitsuyama, a Gartner analyst, said in a release. The growth rate in sales by value will be higher than by shipments because high-speed phones are more expensive, she said.
Mobile-phone shipments in Japan last year fell 2.3 percent to 40.6 million, the first decline ever, as more than half the population owned handsets. Cell-phone users will replace their models with handsets that have built-in cameras and the ability to access the Internet at higher speeds, Gartner said.
``Sales of phones using the wideband code-division multiple access technology standard, which are more expensive than other handsets, will surge in and after 2005,'' Mitsuyama said. Wireless operators will expand the W-CDMA networks, which allow high-speed Internet access, nationwide by 2004, she said.
NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest mobile-phone operator, started its W-CDMA service in October. Vodafone Group Plc's unit J- Phone Co. is also planning to begin a commercial W-CDMA service in December.
KDDI Corp., Japan's second-largest wireless operator, began a similar service operating on a different standard, CDMA2000 1X, this year.
With more expensive phones being sold, cell-phone sales by value last year grew 15 percent in Japan to about 1.7 trillion yen ($14.5 billion), Gartner said.
quote.bloomberg.com. |
