Japan Sept mobile phone shipments fall 10 pct y/y

Mobile phone shipments in Japan fell in September for the ninth straight month when compared with a year earlier, reflecting a boom last year in photo-capable mobile phones and a mature market.
Shipments by Japanese mobile phone makers fell 10 percent to 3.717 million phones in September, although they were up 14 percent from the 3.26 million units shipped in August, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) said in a monthly report on Monday.

The industry group said shipments during the April-September fist half of the financial year fell 17.6 percent year-on-year to 22.03 million.

"Actual shipments last fiscal year were boosted by a boom in camera-equipped mobile phones, and the market is heading into a mature phase," JEITA said in a statement. "We hope the spread of new third-generation services will spark replacement demand."

The following table shows Japanese domestic shipments reported by JEITA, in millions, with year-on-year percentage changes. No data is released for individual companies.

JULY AUGUST SEPT
Shipments 4.14 3.26 3.72
Y/Y pct change -21.3 -21.4 -10.0
The following mobile phone makers were surveyed:
Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd.
Sharp Corp.
Toshiba Corp.
NEC Corp.
Japan Radio Co. Ltd.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.
Hitachi Ltd.
Fujitsu Ltd.
Panasonic Mobile Communications Co. (unlisted)
Mitsubishi Electric Corp.
Sony Corp.
Casio Computer Co. Ltd.
Kyocera Corp.
Seiko Instruments Inc. (unlisted)
Sony Corp.
Denso Corp.