Digital Broadcasters | Japan Mobile ISDB-T Sales Off Y-O-Y

Digital Broadcasters Vendor News Asia(DBVNA) notes that in Japan, mobile hand device sales to end users are on the slide. 1Q/2008 sales dropped to 13.2 million units a decrease of 10.1 per cent year-on-year, according to a report by Gartner, Inc (NYSE:IT) research findings. "There were no new phone features in the first quarter of 2008 that were strong enough to drive growth, unlike the first quarter of 2007. During that period a music player function was introduced as was an embedded digital broadcasting terrestrial ISDB-T tuner. These benefits persuaded users to replace their devices," said Nahoko Mitsuyama, principal analyst for mobile communications research at Gartner, based in Tokyo. The ISDB-T (HDTV type) Tuner contained integrated services. "The proportion of WCDMA devices sold in Japan decreased from 63.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2007 to less than 30 per cent in the first quarter of 2008. Conversely, the proportion of high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) devices rose sharply from 1.9 per cent to more than 35 per cent in the same period," Mr Mitsuyama added. 1Q/2008 Asia Pacific Mobile Device Sales Up 26.6% Y-o-Y. Overall in Asia-Pacific though in 1Q/2008 sales remained bouyant. Some 114.4 million mobile devices were sold in the region. This represented a 26.6 per cent increase over the first quarter of 2007. India remained a high-growth market, and South Korea became a high growth market as well during the quarter, as consumers upgraded their handsets before the new extended contracts are put in place by operators in the second quarter of 2008. "Growth in Asia-Pacific was driven by a high number of new subscribers, lower-priced phones based on wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) technology, as well as low-cost global system for mobile communications (GSM) phones and ultra-low-cost CDMA devices," said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst for mobile terminals at Gartner, based in Mumbai, India. The data Digital Broadcasters Vendor News Asia(DBVNA) shows here is taken from the latest report by Gartner Inc (NYSE: IT). "Dataquest Insight: Market Share for Mobile Devices, 1Q08"is available at www.gartner.com.