Analyst Sees Russia's Mobile Handsets Sales Up to 32 Mln Units 2008

MOSCOW, Dec 14 (Prime-Tass) -- Annual mobile handset sales in Russia are expected to increase to 32 million units in 2008 after the introduction of 3G mobile telecommunication services, Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group, said Thursday at an industry conference called Mobile Retail 2006.

In 2006 and 2007, annual mobile handsets sales in Russia are projected at between 28 million and 29 million units worth between US$5.5 billion and US$6 billion, he said.

According to Russia's largest mobile handset retailer Euroset, Russia's mobile handset sales were at 33.5 million units worth $5.5 billion in 2005.

Murtazin attributed the stagnation on the mobile handset market to slowing growth of the mobile subscriber base in Russia, growing average retail handset prices, and an extended average lifetime of handsets.

An average retail price of a mobile handset has increased by 30% to $158 while the average lifetime of handsets has increase to 18-19 months from 14 months, he said without providing a specific timeframes.

The four largest mobile handset suppliers to the Russian market, Samsung, Nokia, Motorola and SonyEricsson, accounted for 85% of the market in July-September, he said.

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Posted to the site on 14th December 2006