Handset sales growth to slow in 2009, say analysts

Two analysts have cut their forecasts for the growth rate of mobile handset sales in 2009, in the wake of the current economic crisis.

UBS's Maynard Um says global handset growth will now be three per cent next year, rather than the six per cent he previously predicted. Meanwhile, JP Morgan's Ehud Gelblum has cut his forecast from 8.1 per cent to 6.1 per cent for next year too.

Particularly in Europe, the analysts think fewer consumers will be willing to upgrade their phones next year if they're counting pennies due to the credit crunch.

Or, as Um puts it: "We continue to believe in a tight relationship between world real GDP and device volume growth."

The knock-on effects for the mobile games industry are a whole different feature (we're working on it), but it remains to be seen if even these revised forecasts are later revised downwards again.