Mobile phone shipments in Japan fell 2.3 percent from a year earlier in August as growth in high-speed third-generation (3G) handsets failed to offset a slowdown in sales of 2G models, an industry group said on October 12.
But overall demand could pick up towards the end of the year, when most mobile phone manufacturers launch their latest models, a spokesman for the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) said on Wednesday. August shipments came to 3.19 million units, down from 3.26 million a year earlier.