Nokia forecasts mobile bonanza

Nokia chairman Jorma Ollila

Nokia chairman Jorma Ollila today delivered a bullish address at the firm's Mobility Conference 2005 in Barcelona in which he revised mobile sales forecasts upwards and promised a booming market for some time to come.

Ollila said in his keynote address that voice calls would be the main driver for growth, and that today's one billion handsets would grow to three billion by 2010.

Even in the markets described as 'mature' Nokia would "continue to grow at previous levels".

"There is room for growth in the upgrade market, and there is no mature market in this industry as yet," he said.

"For example the proportion of people using new cameraphones is exploding. There are half a billion units in use this year."

Ollila estimated that cameraphones will represent 74 per cent of Nokia's total sales values by 2009.

Music phones are another area of strong growth. Half of all Nokia's phones have a music player already, and the software is increasingly being integrated into new models.

Demand for 3G is also strong, according to Ollila, who promised that half of Nokia's phones will be 3G capable by the end of the year.

The other key focus is on the corporate market, and in particular mobile email. "Only one per cent of corporate email inboxes has been mobilised," he said. "There is a huge growth opportunity to allow workers to run any applications anywhere."

Other news from Nokia's Mobility Conference 2005 in Barcelona:

• Nokia 'got it wrong' with VoIP
• Nokia goes mega on multimedia