W-European mobile phones market grows 15% in H1

The Western European mobile phone market reported a growth of 15 percent during H1 2005, compared to 17 percent growth in 2003 and 2004, but the growth started to slow down in Q2, according to market research by GfK Marketingservices. The highest growth rates GfK finds back in Spain and Italy with around 30 percent plus. As for Germany just a single digit growth is expected in 2005 after a plus of 26 percent and +19 percent in 2003 and 2004. An important reason for the positive development in Europe for the last years is of course the rapid development of product features and new product designs. About 30 percent of the mobile phones sold in June have Bluetooth functionality, MP3 is already included in more than 20 percent of the GSM products currently sold and 95 percent of the 3G phones sold have MP3 or similar technology on board. The impact of 3G products is only slowly increasing. The country with the highest share for 3G products is Italy with about 30 percent of the sales recently. This is of course linked to the subsidy given on 3G sales in a market which traditionally developed without subsidy. Growth rates of more than 20 percent for Czech Republic and more than 30% for Poland and Russia for the first half year 2005 indicate an even faster growth in East Europe. The 2005 mobile phone sales in Russia will be for the first time higher than the sales volumes in the UK or Germany.