• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 7, 2002

A Global View of the Mobile Phone Market

According to a report from flat panel display market research firm DisplaySearch, worldwide mobile phone penetration will hit 24% by 2005 -- up from just 8.1% in 1999. DisplaySearch believes that mobile phones were used by 15% of the world's population by the end of 2001.

The latest quarterly Mobile Phone and Shipment Forecast finds that Western Europe claimed the greatest share of the mobile phone market in 2001 with 25.4%. Latin America claimed a smaller 11.7% in 2001, but the area experienced the greatest surge in year-over-year growth (75.3%).

Mobile Phone Market Share, 2001

  +----------------+-------+  | Western Europe | 25.4% |  | North America  | 16.0  |  | China          | 15.9
|  | Latin America  | 11.7  |  | Japan          | 11.4  |  | Rest of Asia   | 10.0  |  | Eastern Europe | 4.1   |  | Korea          | 3.0   |  | Others         | 2.5   |  +----------------+-------+

Source: DisplaySearch, Dec, 2001

DisplaySearch believes that 407.7 million mobile phone units were shipped worldwide in 2001 -- up 4.9% from 2000. For comparison to the DisplaySearch findings, eMarketer's North American Wireless Report presents information from Gartner Group. Gartner estimates that there were 666.3 million cellphones installed worldwide in 2001.

Total Cellular Phones (millions)

  +---------------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------+  |               |  1999 |  2000 |  2001 |   2002 |  2003 |
+---------------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------+  | North America |  91.3 | 107.5 | 122.5 |  136.9 | 150.5 |  | Europe        | 148.2 | 191.5 | 228.3 |  259.1 | 285.3 |  | Asia          |
142.0 | 177.0 | 213.4 |  252.1 | 294.6 |  | Pacific/Japan |       |       |       |        |       |  | Latin America |  35.4 |  52.7 |  71.9 |   96.9 | 127.6 |  | Middle        |  16.3 |  23.6 |
30.2 |   36.7 |  43.4 |  | East/Africa   |       |       |       |        |       |  +---------------+-------+-------+-------+--------+-------+  

Source: Gartner Group

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