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Mobile-phone shipments for Japanese firms rise

Japan's mobile-phone shipments topped 4 million in June for the first time in nine months as the release of new handsets with built-in cameras buoyed an industry trying to recover from last year's slump.

While shipments in June fell 6.5 percent compared with the previous year, mobile-phone sales are beginning to recover, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said. The decline was the smallest in 10 months.

NTT DoCoMo Inc, KDDI Corp and Vodafone Group Plc's J-Phone Co have promoted phones with features such as cameras and location services to revive sales after the global handset market shrank last year for the first time in history. Operators are counting on the handsets to entice users to spend more per month.

"A camera phone is becoming an explosive hit product these days," said Nahoko Mitsuyama, an analyst at market researcher Gartner Japan Ltd.

"I expect the increase in camera phone shipments to continue. Taking snapshots or moving images and sending them wirelessly is a step toward the third-generation of services."

Compared with the previous month, cellphone shipments in Japan grew 26 percent in June to 3.97 million, the fourth straight month-on-month gain.
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