Synopsis The handset market in Australia is dominated by Nokia, which commands a market share of around 40%, with a number of smaller vendors all maintaining market shares of between 10% and 15%. However in 2009 these dominant vendors face increasing competition from smaller competitors such as HTC and Apple. Due to a difficult economic climate generally in Australia growth in handset sales in 2009 and 2010 is expected to be minimal. This is despite a short-term boost to sales from the government’s economic stimulus packages in early 2009. The mobile market has reached saturation in Australia and further growth in mobile handset sales is reliant on shorter replacement cycles, driven by demand for handsets with innovative functionality. The Apple iPhone and similar phones from other vendors are a good example of this trend as users upgrade to these handsets in order to make good use of the mobile Internet for the first time.
