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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Biddle who wrote (30946)	1/9/2003 5:57:41 PM
From: John Biddle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197676

Dow Jones Business News GEAB Says Nokia Model Led December Mobile Phone Sales Thursday January 9, 11:54 am ET biz.yahoo.com STOCKHOLM -(Dow Jones)- Nokia Corp.'s 3310 mobile phone was the top seller at GEAB the Phone House stores in Sweden during December, followed by Sony Ericsson's T200 and R600 models, the retailer said Thursday. GEAB, the largest independent phone retailer in Sweden, said it sold around 6% more phones than in December 2001, while revenue increased by around 10%. GEAB says it sells about 12% of the phones in Sweden. The company said the biggest sellers for the holiday season were, as it expected, those that were being offered with prepaid subscriber plans, rather than the snazzy new models that Nokia and other phone manufacturers began rolling out late in 2002. "Telephones with color screens and cameras were a little too expensive as Christmas gifts, so this Christmas it was again the prepaid telephones that sold. We had a big assortment under SEK1,000, which is the magic line to get big volumes," GEAB marketing director Daniel Lindholm said in a statement. The Christmas season is a key selling period for mobile phone makers. Discouraging trading updates from electronics retailers in the U.S. and the U.K. in recent days have fed concerns that holiday phone sales may have fallen short of expectations, although a true picture won't emerge until Nokia and its rivals report their fourth-quarter results in the coming weeks. GEAB said early demand for Sony Ericsson's much-anticipated P800, which combines the functions of a phone and personal digital assistant, was strong. The high-end phone has accounted for 13.6% of the retailer's sales, measured by revenue, since it went on sale Dec. 23, a spokeswoman said. A successful debut for the P800 is seen as crucial for Sony Ericsson, the loss-making handset joint venture of Telefon AB LM Ericsson and Sony Corp. that hopes to reach profitability in 2003. In terms of the number of phones sold in December, Nokia held five of the top 10 spots at GEAB, while Sony Ericsson had four. In terms of revenue, Sony Ericsson's T68 color-screen phone ranked first, followed by the Nokia 3310 and Sony Ericsson's T200 and P800. Nokia's first camera phone, the 7650, which it launched over the summer, didn't rank in the top 10 on either list. GEAB is owned by Carphone Warehouse. Company Web site: geab.se -By Buster Kantrow, Dow Jones Newswires; +46 8 54513091; buster.kantrow@ dowjones.com