HELSINKI (AFP) - Nokia, the world's biggest manufacturer of mobile phones, predicted global mobile market growth of 15 percent this year, a much more upbeat forecast than its previous 10 percent estimate.
In a surprise announcement, company chief executive Jorma Ollila told a shareholders meeting that subscriber growth, especially in emerging markets, had prompted the improved assessment.
"Nokia estimates that in the year 2006, the mobile device market volume will increase globally 15 percent or more from our estimate of 795 million units in 2005," he said.
Nokia held a global market share of 34.2 percent at the end of January, according to consultants Strategy Analytics, while Motorola had 18.3 percent, Samsung 11.1 percent, and LG and Sony Ericsson 6.6 percent each.
Ollila also said that the number of mobile phone subscribers was expected to go past the three billion mark in 2008 compared with an estimated two billion now.
Nokia expected 80 percent of the next billion subscribers to come from the emerging markets, he said.
"Nokia is clearly very confident, leading us to believe that the risk of poor first-quarter results has diminished significantly," Richard Windsor, an analyst at Nomura Securities, told AFP's financial newswire, AFX News.
Nokia shares rose some five percent on the Helsinki bourse, and the upbeat forecast also boosted telecommunications sector equities worldwide, including Motorola in the US and STMicroelectronics in France.
Meanwhile, about 100 workers from Perlos and Foxconn, two companies that provide components to Nokia, demonstrated outside the shareholders' meeting against plans to relocate research activities, production and assembly to China and India.
Protestors said it was the first such demonstration in Nokia's history, and reflected concern that several hundred jobs would be lost at the two sub-contractors.
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