Japan August mobile phone shipments down 4.9 percent

Mobile phone shipments in Japan fell 4.9 percent in August after growing demand for high-speed third-generation (3G) phones failed to offset a slide in shipments of second-generation models, an industry group said on October 16.
Shipments by makers such as NEC Corp, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd and Sharp Corp in August totalled 3.0 million units, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Association (JEITA) said on Monday.
Shipments of 3G models gained 15.9 percent to 2.6 million units from a year earlier. The 3G handsets allow faster downloads of data such as music and video clips.
Shipments of second-generation (2G) phones fell 69 percent to 238,000 units. Personal handyphone system (PHS) shipments were virtually unchanged at 150,000 units, JEITA said. Other Japanese handset makers include Casio Computer Co Ltd, Fujitsu Ltd and Kyocera Corp.