How could Asia's slow cell phone sales growth be countered?

Mobile phone sales growth will slow the most in Asia next year as wireless services have already spread to much of the region.

Sales of cellular phones will increase 6 percent to 1billion worldwide next year, after a 20 percent gain in 2006, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said. Growth in Asia will probably drop to 8 percent next year from 36 percent.

"There are fewer and fewer countries where people are buying mobile phones for the first time," said Masaaki Akahori, a member of the association's research team. "People who already have handsets only change them occasionally."

Nokia Oyj, the world's biggest handset maker, and Motorola, its largest rival, are focusing on less-expensive phones that work on lower-capacity networks, betting sales to first-time buyers in China and India will increase faster than those of handsets for users who are upgrading to higher-speed, or third-generation, networks.

Growth in India, where sales will more than double this year, will probably slow to 7 percent next year, the association said. China's sales will increase 19 percent, about half this year's pace. India accounts for 25 percent of sales in Asia and China for 32 percent, JEITA said.

Texas Instruments, the world's biggest maker of semiconductors for mobile phones, this month cut its sales and profit forecast for the fourth quarter, citing the trend among phone makers toward cheaper handsets that don't use as many semiconductors.

Subscribers to mobile phone services will probably increase 14 percent to 2.9 billion worldwide in 2007 from this year's 2.6 billion, said the association, which represents 509 Japanese manufacturers.

That forecast is in line with that of Nokia Chief Executive Officer Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. Last month, he predicted global wireless phone users would rise to 3 billion by next year.

China is Nokia's biggest market by sales, contributing almost 12 percent in the first nine months of 2006. Revenue in China reached 3.4 billion euros ($4.5 billion) last year.

With a substantial number of Asia's population already owning a handset, the market in Asia would experience a slump. One solution might be to advance the technology so greatly in a short span of time to render the existing sets almost obsolete. That way, sales would be assured in markets with advanced generation networks but not for first time buyers in places like China and India.

The producers of handsets have to compromise one market for the other although a two-prong attack might also be viable. But as always, a lack of focus could always lead to a downfall.

In places like Singapore, where image plays a very important role, new technologies would not really be necessary. Just an added function or a little facelift to the existing handset suffice. In these kinds of markets, producers should concentrate more on the outlook of the phone and continue to beautify the handsets if they want to boost their sales.

Cultures in different markets have to be given due consideration the efforts to promote sales in Asia. Don't you agree?