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Mitsubishi to sell Net phones in Europe

Mitsubishi Electric Corp, the eighth-largest mobile-phone maker, said it will offer new models in Europe with constant Internet access, betting on higher demand even as rivals such as Ericsson AB cut forecasts for global sales.

Tokyo-based Mitsubishi, which this year shipped its first mobile phone with general packet radio service, or GPRS, will offer at least three new models in Europe by year end, Toshio Masujima, the company's spokesman, said in an interview.

Mitsubishi's efforts to boost sales of Internet-ready phones come as demand for the advanced phones isn't meeting previous estimates. Rival Ericsson, the third-largest mobile-phone maker, Tuesday cut the industry's sales target for GPRS phones this year to 10 million from 25 million as consumers cut spending on new gadgets. Nokia Oyj, the largest maker, gave the same forecast.

"It's too early for Internet-enabled handsets to be popular" in Europe, said Tomohiko Miyazaki, an analyst at Nomura Securities Co. Sales will grow "in the latter half of next year at the earliest," he said.

Mitsubishi said in April it will ship a total of 16 million mobile phones to Europe this year, out of 28.2 million phones worldwide. It declined to give forecasts for GPRS phone sales.

The company, which has shipped more than 1,000 of its Geo model GPRS phones to Europe, will offer a color screen model in Europe this month, a monochromatic version next month, and a handset combining a phone and hand-held computer by December-end.

GPRS allows faster Web access by bundling data into packets.

Ericsson and Motorola already sell GPRS phones, while Nokia plans to ship its first model this month.

Merrill Lynch & Co predicted industry-wide mobile-phone sales this year will fall for the first time, dropping to 390 million handsets from 410 million units sold last year. The brokerage also lowered next year's estimate to 410 million phones from an earlier forecast of 450 million.
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