Asia-Pacific mobile sales rise 24 per cent in 2004

Asia-Pacific mobile phone sales excluding Japan rose by 24.1 per cent to 164 million handsets in 2004 on strong demand for low-tier models, according to the Gartner research house http://www.gartner.com . As the Tehran Times http://www.tehrantimes.com reports, current market leader Nokia increased its total annual sales in 2004 by 28 per cent to 50.6 million handsets, driven by the popularity of its mid- and low-tier models in emerging markets India and China, according to Gartner. "Phones with cameras and colour screens accounted for the majority of sales in the low-tier segment, slowly eroding the share of black and white display handsets," said Ann Liang, a Gartner analyst.