Mobile phone growth ‘to slowdown’
The growth of the global mobile phone market is set to slowdown this year thanks to the global credit crunch, analysts say.
Deutsche Bank and Oppenheimer & Co have both cut their predictions for the industry, which had estimated the market would grow by 8.1 per cent this year.
This has been cut to 6.1 per cent to 1.22 billion phones this year, a full two per cent down on the earlier figure.
“We think consumers globally are stretching out their phone replacements, holding off on purchases to pay for gas or food or the mortgage,” write Brian Modoff and Jonathan Goldberg at Deutsche Bank in a report.
“Conditions are just going to get tougher for the industry over the forthcoming year.”
The downbeat report also contained the pair’s own unique view on how to solve problems facing the mobile handset sector.
“Driving to work last week, we passed a warehouse on fire, sending up a thick plume of black smoke.
“The thought occurred to us that there has to be a better way to get rid of excess inventory, but judging from the state of the wireless handset industry, maybe there isn’t.”
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