James Delahunty
15 Mar 2010 8:48
Nokia Corp. said that the market for mobile phones totaled 1.26 billion handsets last year, beating the Finnish giant's forecast of 1.14 billion. The company reduced its share of sales to 34 percent from an earlier forcast of 38 percent, recalculating the size of the market and the scale of the growing grey market for counterfeit and unlicensed mobile phones.
According to Gartner research group, the grey market totaled around 145 million handsets in 2009, with the majority of them being sold in China, India and Latin America. "These include vendors of legitimate, as well as unlicensed and counterfeit, products with manufacturing facilities primarily centered around certain locations in Asia and other emerging markets," Nokia said.
"This is a good thing for Nokia because it is really showing that they want to measure the real market and grey market has been a big driver in 2009," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. "It is an opportunity for them to go after and try and actually win over users in that segment as well."
The company expects the overall market for mobile handsets to grow 10 percent in 2010 with its market share remaining unchanged at 34 percent.