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Nokia says China could be its biggest market in 3 years

Nokia, the world's biggest seller of cell phones, expected that China might soon overtake the US as its biggest market, the company said Wednesday.

Sales in China make up 10 percent of the total revenue of Nokia, second only to the US with 13 percent. But rapid growth in coming years would probably push China beyond that, Jorma Ollila, the chief executive of Nokia, told reporters during a visit here.

"I would not be surprised to see China take up the No. 1 position in the next three years," he said.

Ollila has been revamping Nokia, which is based in Espoo, Finland, by holding down costs and introducing new lines of phones, and China stands at the center of his efforts as a manufacturer and as a consumer.

Last year, Nokia's sales in China grew 44 percent, to US$3.6 billion; its exports of telecommunications equipment from China grew 56 percent, to US$3.3 billion; and its share of China's cell phone market rose to as much as 22 percent from about 17 percent in 2002, Ollila said.

"We expect that strong growth to continue," he said, adding that China was likely to account for a quarter of new cell phone users worldwide over the next five years as its subscribers grew to 700 million from 330 million. "China will really be the driver of the growth of subscriptions."

Nokia executives said that India would probably be the next strong growth area for cell phone use. India's minister for communications said on Wednesday that Nokia, Ericsson and Alcatel would invest as much as US$800 million in India this year, and the number of cell phone users might grow fourfold to as many as 200 million by the end of 2007.
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