Nokia expects 2006 mobile phone market growth to beat forecasts

11/26/05 - newratings.com

LONDON, November 25 (newratings.com) – Nokia's (NIA-EUR) Chief Executive Officer Jorma Ollila said growth of the mobile phone market in 2006 is likely to be higher than experts expect.

Stamford, Connecticut-based research group Gartner recently raised its forecast for global sales for this year from 779 million units to 810 million units, significantly higher than the sales of 674 million units witnessed last year. Gartner expects the mobile device volumes to grow 10-15% in 2006, as compared to 20% this year. Referring to the outlook for the cell phone market, Nokia’s CEO Jorma Ollila said at a seminar in Beijing, "The robust growth will continue and will exceed expectations, as it did this year." The world's largest maker of mobile phones said its handset sales in the China region rose 77% y/y in the first nine months of 2005. Espoo, Finland-based Nokia sold 23 million mobile phones in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the first nine months of this year.