Mobile Phones Quickly Becoming Ubiquitous

Yahoo:  According to new survey figures released by Gartner Research today, annual mobile phone sales are expected to exceed one billion handsets by 2009, with approximately 2.6 billion people using one by then - possibly making it the most common consumer electronics device...Gartner raised its 2005 forecast by 29 million phones to 779 million and reports 674 million handset sales in 2004. "The average price per mobile phone will slip to $161 in 2009 from $174 in 2004, the study said, even though the handsets will have more memory and better screens and cameras than current models."

"The mobile phone is the most prolific consumer device on the planet," said Gartner analyst Ben Wood. By comparison, every year around 200 million PCs and 200 million TVs are being sold. According to Asia Pacific analyst Ann Liang, "China and India alone will account for nearly 200 million units in 2007, with the Indian market surpassing China in 2009 to reach 139 million units."