Significant increase in mobile phone sales in 2009

19:58 24th February 2010

In the fourth quarter of 2009, mobile phone sales grew eight per cent worldwide, according to research by Gartner.

There were 1.2 billion phones sold in 2009, with 340 million of them in the final quarter. The market was flat and there was a 0.9 decline in sales compared to 2008. However the market picked up and grew 8.3 per cent compared to the last quarter of 2008, according to research data from Gartner.

"Looking back at the announcements during Mobile World Congress 2010, we can expect 2010 to retain a strong focus around operating systems, services and applications while hardware takes a back seat," said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner.

In other news, a new laptop aimed at people who are not using PCs on a regular basis has been launched in Britain.

Alex, which is based on Linux, comes with simplified e-mail, web browsing, image editing and office software, including applications compatible with Microsoft's Excel and PowerPoint file formats. The laptop's developers hope to attract 12 million people in Britain who are not PC users.

Written by Derek Oldman

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