Sale of cell phones declining
By Asad Cheema

ISLAMABAD—Worldwide sales of mobile phones will hit a billion next year but the days of massive growth could be over, says an industry report.
According to research firm Informa Telecoms and Media, the battle now will be persuading users to upgrade their phones regularly.
New services such as mobile TV will compete with improved cameras, more memory and cutting-edge design.
But the long-awaited switch to 3G could be some time off, the report said.
The report predicts that only a quarter of all mobile phones sold by 2008 will be 3G - which might not be quite the news operators, desperate to recoup the money they spent on third-generation networks, wanted to hear BBC reported.
Emerging markets such as Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa will continue to see large increases in handset sales but the very low profit margins means growth in these markets will be offset by saturation levels in the more profitable Western markets. This will put pressure on manufacturers to come up with innovative designs and functions in the effort to persuade consumers to change handsets on a regular basis.
Like supermodels, mobile phones will continue to get thinner as the desire for wafer-sized phones continues.
Style will not be everything though. The report finds that consumers will increasingly expect functionality to walk hand-in-hand with good looks. Cameras will continue to be one of the key features of phones and more than half of all mobile handsets will have integrated cameras from 2007.