Gartner has forecast that global mobile handset sales will grow 11 percent to reach 1.28 billion units by year-end, up from 1.15 billion units in 2007, with the fourth-quarter seen as a crucial period for sales. “All the hopes for mobile phone manufacturers for the overall year-end growth results rest on the final quarter of the year when most new products will be introduced to the market and the normal seasonality will help boost sales,” said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner. She added that sales in the third-quarter would be only “moderately” higher than the second-quarter, where Gartner expects sales of between 300 million and 305 million units.

The firm added that sales growth for the year will be increasingly reliant on emerging markets as mature regions, such as Western Europe, Japan and North America, reach saturation. In Asia Pacific, mobile phone sales are forecast to reach 472.5 million units in 2008, a 17.9 per cent increase from 2007. By contrast, sales in Western Europe are projected to reach 188 million units, a 1.5 percent decline from last year.