A new report published by Instat has concluded that the global economic crisis will negatively affect mobile phone sales.

According to the market research company, the current slowdown has spread throughout Europe, Asia and North America.

"The economic crisis is still playing out, but all indications are that it will have an effect on the cellphone business worldwide, but mostly on North America and Europe," explained Instat analyst Allen Nogee. "Instat believes that it will take until 2010 before cellphone sales return to their normal growth levels."

Nevertheless, Chinese mobile phone sales have continued to defy difficult financial conditions. Eric Chen, an analyst at BNP Paribas, forecasts that Chinese handset makers will ship 200 million phones to emerging markets by the end of this year - accounting for a total share of 18 per cent. In addition, Vodafone is expected to order 35 per cent of its handsets in 2009 from Chinese companies, including ZTE, Huawei, TCL-Alcatel and Foxlink. Other operators, such as India's Spice, are currently eyeing China as a source for handsets.

BNP Paribas has also announced high expectations for Mediatek's low-cost phones, which are set to hit the market in early 2009. The company managed to ship 84 million units during the third quarter of 2008, compared to 51 million units in the previous quarter. Mediatek's revenue is projected to be Taiwan Dollars (TWD) 94.15 million this year ($2.86 million), TWD 111.75 million in 2009 ($3.4 million) and TWD 130.75 million ($3,984,580 million) in 2010. X

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