Ollila's Nokia Predicts Strong Growth
Chris Noon, 03.31.06, 10:43 AM ET
London - Upbeat tone. The handset industry looks to be in fine fettle. Finnish mobile phone behemoth Nokia has raised its forecast for the global market, auguring growth of 15% or more this year.
Nokia and Motorola (nyse: MOT - news - people ), the globe's No. 2 handset maker, are both selling more lower-priced phones, thanks to surging demand from markets where penetration levels are still low: China, India, Southeast Asia and Africa. Such market demand supersedes that of the U.S. and Europe.
Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ) particularly is driving revenue through sales of huge volumes of cheaper phones in emerging markets. Its forecast is 5% up on previous forecasts, which called for growth of 10% or more from about 795 million handsets in 2005.
Speaking Thursday at his final annual meeting as Nokia's Chief Executive, Jorma Ollila said about 80% of the world's next billion mobile subscribers would come from emerging-market countries. Sony Ericsson, a joint venture of Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) and Ericsson (nasdaq: ERICY - news - people ) is also starting to push out cheaper phone models in a bid for a stake of the fast-growth market.
The long-serving Ollila will be leaving a company bristling with confidence when he steps down from the helm in June: Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who leads the company's mobile phone business, will become chief executive when Ollila departs in the summer. |
