Growth of European handset market slowing?
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Mar 21st 2008 3:24PM
posted Mar 21st 2008 3:24PM
Hot on the heels of strong fourth quarter performances, Sony Ericsson and Nokia are warning that things are starting to get a little soft going into 2008 -- a possible symptom of a global recession, not to mention a sign that folks may be finally stumbling on "perfect" phones that they no longer feel compelled to upgrade before they're utterly worn out. For its part, Sony Ericsson sent a note out that it's going to fall well short of analysts' projections of 26 million handsets shipped in the first quarter of '08, coming in closer to 22 million; Nokia meanwhile has said that it saw a mere 3 percent growth in the European market in 2007, compared to a whopping 16 percent in 2006. The proverbial silver lining on the cloud might be that manufacturers are seeing plenty of new business in emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region, so they have a safe haven to protect some profit if the rest of the world's economies fall apart for the next year or two.[Via PHONE Magazine]
Read - Sony Ericsson warns of soft results
Read - Nokia says European mobile phone growth fell in '07
If contracts were shorter, dont you think they might sell more phones?
Yeah...! and the price of phones would be higher. the reason why contract are becomeing longer is because phones are more expensive now. not to mention that we are lucky to have contracts unlike alot of other countries who have to pay full retail prices with no other altenrative....my brother spends between $300-$700 every time he wants a phone..and the service is not cheap at all.
No doubt contracts are a good thing, but there should be more options (shorter contracts) for people who would like to sell there phone after a while and buy a new one with a different carrier.
I think everyone is missing the point, they are talking about the europian market, and as far as I know contract phones are not as popular over there as prepaid.
I think both Sony Ericsson and Nokia should look at the US market a little more now.