Nokia Predicts Mobile Phone Growth in Africa and the Middle East

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Nokia Predicts Mobile Phone Growth in Africa and the Middle East

5:30 am on May 8, 2006 | Category: Business, Mobile Devices, Cell Phones

With all the talk of mobile phone growth in countries like India and China, another set of emerging markets, namely Africa and the Middle East, have all too often gone ignored.

Nokia, however, is beginning to pay attention to this potentially massive group of customers, predicting that they will buy about 20% of the next billion cell phones sold.

“We believe that of the next 1 billion users, 200 million will come from the Middle East and Africa, which makes it one of the fastest, if not the fastest growing region in the world,” said Nokia executive, Timo Toikkanen, who is a senior vice president of operations in the region.

When Nokia begins selling three new low-cost handsets later this year, it plans to focus much of its marketing attention on these fast developing markets, and further establish its brand name to the customers therein.