WASHINGTON-Worldwide cellular and personal communications services handset sales reached 96 million in the fourth quarter of 1999, led by Nokia Corp. with 27 percent of the global market share, according to analysis done by The Strategis Group.
For the year, cellular/PCS handset sales rocketed to 291 million units, an increase of approximately 65 percent from 1998’s sales of 178 million units.
“CDMA technology established itself as the second dominating technology since the third quarter of 1999 and will continue to benefit from the shift from analog to digital networks,” said Sylvia Panayi, analyst with The Strategis Group. “As the European markets mature and 3G deployment becomes more evident in 2002, we will see a slowdown in the growth of 2G GSM handset sales.”
Nokia sold 78.5 million handsets last year. Its strongest market was in Europe, followed by the United States.
Motorola Inc. increased its global handset sales from 33 million to 50 million units at the end of 1999, capturing 17 percent of world market share. L.M. Ericsson place third in market share with 11 percent, said The Strategis Group.
Western Europe led in fourth-quarter gains in subscribers, ending the year with 185 million, or 38 percent, of the world’s cellular/PCS subscribers.
