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Asia - Mobile phone market may surpass 400 million units in 2008 Source: TelecomAsia, 20 March 2008 Asian handset vendors (excluding Japan) shipped 366 million phones in 2007, 18% higher than 2006. India and China accounted for more than 60% of all sales in 2007. IDC expects the Asia Pacific to sell more than 400 million handsets in 2008.  Nokia was still far and away the region's biggest handset-maker, with its market share jumping to more than 50%, up from 42% in the previous year. Motorola, second place in 2006, saw its share halve due to the waning RAZR series and the shift away from the ultra-low-end segment, giving way to Samsung, whose sales were driven by its 3G products. Sony Ericsson and LG kept their positions at fourth and fifth respectively. India - India may soon be second largest mobile market Source: Bloomberg, 25 March 2008 India may overtake the United States in April 2008 as the world's second-largest mobile-phone market after China. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India reported that there were 250.9 million wireless subscribers in India at the end of February 2008, compared with 260.5 million for the United States and 540.5 million for China. India added 8.53 million mobile-phone subscribers in February, and 8.77 million customers in January. The accelerated pace of mobile-phone user additions in India, the world's fastest-growing major wireless market, has helped attract investments from Vodafone Group Plc and Richard Branson in the past year. Mr Branson announced that Virgin Mobile wireless services will be sold in India. Vietnam - Samsung to build handset plant in Vietnam Source: Korea Herald, 22 March 2008 Samsung Electronics will build a major handset-manufacturing plant in Vietnam in order to boost production capacity. The plant is likely to be located in Bac Ninh, northeast of Hanoi. It will initially produce 30 million mobile phone handsets a year, with capacity gradually expanding to 100 million units. The Vietnam plant will manufacture cheaper handset models while its existing production base in Gumi focuses on more high-end products. Samsung also has handset production facilities in China, India and Brazil. The electronics giant aims to sell over 200 million units of handsets globally in 2008, from 161 million units in 2007. View an example of our experience in this industry. Back to list of articles.  Visit our website to sign up for free intelligence on Asian markets.

This Weekly News Update is a free newsletter, providing a round-up of the week's Asia-Pacific news from our core industry practices. If you have colleagues or friends who may be interested in subscribing, please forward this email to them and copy knowledge@fusionc.com.

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