Global sales of mobile phones that can take, send and receive photographs rose 65 percent in the fourth quarter, boosted by new models from companies including Sharp Corp and Nokia Oyj, a market research group said.
Sales rose to 8.6 million units from 5.2 million during the previous three months, according to Strategy Analytics, a research company. Asia accounted for 80 percent of total camera-phone sales in the fourth quarter. Sharp sold 4 million of the 17.9 million camera phones bought around the world last year.
Handset makers have introduced the new models to encourage consumers to replace their old phones and spend more taking pictures, playing games and talking. Phones with cameras accounted for 4 percent of worldwide handset sales last year, including 7 percent in the fourth quarter, the report said.
In the fourth quarter, Western Europe accounted for 13 percent of total camera-phone sales, with North America and Eastern Europe each accounting for 2.3 percent. More than 70 percent of the European population already has a mobile phone.
Nokia, the word's biggest mobile-phone maker, last year sold 91 percent of the 2.2 million camera phones sold based on the GSM, or global system for mobile communications, standard. Samsung Electronics Co sold the most camera phones based on CDMA, or code-division multiple access technology, selling a quarter of the 5 million handsets based on that standard.
The figures don't include phones that come with an optional snap-on camera, the report said.
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