Economic programmes in China have helped to push mobile phone shipments up 9% in the first quarter of the year.
According to marketwatcher iSuppli, sales of brand-name GSM-based mobile handsets amounted to 44 million units in the first quarter of 2009, compared to 42 million in the first quarter of 2008.
Branded CDMA-based wireless phone sales reached 5.8 million units in the first quarter, up 200% from the same period in 2008.
iSuppli is forecasting that China’s domestic handset market will amount to 238.9 million units in 2009, up 7.8% from 2008.
“The first quarter is typically strong for China’s mobile-phone market due to purchases made for the Lunar New Year Holiday in January,” said Kevin Wang, director, China research, for iSuppli.
“At the same time, shipments were further boosted by demand generated from China’s stimulus programmes that encourage the purchasing of electronic products," said Wang.
Chinese handset supplier, Tianyu overtook Motorola to become the third largest mobile handset supplier in domestic sales behind Nokia and Samsung. Two other local brands are Goinee and OPPO.