I need an industry summary (current size, up/down trends, etc.) of the
cellular phones and accessory industry.  I am trying to forecast
future sales/growth for a retail business which sells these phones and
accessories.

What is the outlook for lower-price cellular/PCS phone service - i.e.
flat-rate unlimited monthly service (companies like Metro PCS),
prepaid service (companies like Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile)?

What is the growth outlook for wireless phone accessories (phone-to-PC
data cables, usb chargers, cigarette lighter chargers, case/belt
clip/holsters, personalized faceplates, lanyards, car kits, signal
boosters, etc.)

Thank you for your time.

<At the end of 2001,  there were globally one billion cell phones in
use. Global sales are 400 million per year. Cell phones did better
than expected in 2002. 423.4 million cell phones were sold last year
in the U.S. According to Inform, there will be 200 million cell phones
in use in the U.S. by 2005. The report also shows details of sales
from 1995 to 2004. In includes details of phone life and discusses the
issue of discarded phones.
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:v_LaXcb-re8J:www.informinc.org/cpch2.pdf+%22face+plates%22+sales+growth+million&hl=en&start=3&ie=UTF-8

An estimated 95 million people in the U.S. have cell phones.
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:wstat0FoF4EJ:www.fellowes.com/About_Us/press_room/press-kit/ergo/overviewofproducts.doc+%22cell+phone+accessories%22+sales+million+2002&hl=en&start=5&ie=UTF-8

The UK market has become saturated.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2103022,00.html

According to the Mobile Telephone Customer Satisfaction Study, there
is increased interest in built-in camera functions. Twenty percent of
cell phone owners express and interest in built-in cameras.
http://www.jdpa.com/studies/pressrelease.asp?StudyID=739&CatID=3

The number of young people owning cell phones is likely to increase.
Currently approximately 38 percent of teenagers own cell phones.
According to Teenage Research Unlimited the number of young people
aged 10 to 24 with cell phones will increase from 11 million in 2002
to over 30 million in 2004.
http://www.worldwide-wireless.info/

In the fourth quarter of 2002, much of the growth from Motorola came
from lower-priced cell phones. The downside of this is that the
lower-priced units have smaller profit margins. Nokia however have
managed to get greater profit margins from their cheaper products.
Analyst Sandy Sanders thinks that Motorola flooded the market with
cheap phones that has created excess stock and could affect the market
in 2003.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/01/22/technology/q_wireless/


Accessories.

CEA predicts that sales of accessories will snowball this year. The
market for electronic accessories (video, audio, telephone, camcorders
and wireless products) was worth $1.5 billion last year and is
estimated to grow to $1.6 billion in 2003.
http://www.ce.org/publications/books_references/digital_america/accessories/default.asp

Wireless Retail a supplier of wireless accessories has increased its
revenue by 44% in 2002 and predicts significant growth in 2003.
http://www.wirelessretailinc.com/content.asp?categoryid=4&contentid=17#

According to Best Buy more customers are buying wireless accessories.
http://news.corporate.findlaw.com/prnewswire/20030409/09apr2003181420.html

Radio Shack predicts 10% growth for wireless accessories in 2003.
http://www.twice.com/index.asp?layout=story_stocks&articleid=CA273764

Personalised ring tones have proved to be a particularly popular
accessory. According to the Mobile Music Report from the Baskerville
Research Group, global sales of ring tones were $1 billion in 2001.
The market has seen growth in 2002. In 2002, Americans spent an
estimated $18 million on ring tones. In Japan sales of ring tones
reached $300 million. The Strand Consulting Group estimates that
European sales of ring tones were $1.5 billion in 2002. Approximately
50,000 ring tones were downloaded each day.
http://www.worldwide-wireless.info/cell-phone-ringtones.html

Motorola has started co-branding phones. A limited edition Harley
Davidson phone has been introduced with ringing tones like “Born to be
Wild”. Other phones include Swiss Army models and a Bloomingdale’s
phone. http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0304100146apr10,0,965484.story?coll=chi-technology-hed

Hands free sets – a growing market.
http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA13928

The growth in the number of young people owning phones is highly
likely to lead to growth in personalising accessories like face plates
with images that are considered to be cool.
http://www.hop-on.com/wsjarticle.html>


<Additional links:>

<The e wireless report>
<http://www.activmediaresearch.com/ewireless_charts.html>

<UK market.>
<http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/tables/0,7681,889483,00.html>

<The problem of discarded cell phones>
<http://see_green.tripod.com/environmentaltidbits/>


<Search strategy:>

<"cell phones" "lower-priced" outlook>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22cell+phones%22+%22lower-priced%22+outlook+>

<"cell phone accessories" trends>
<://www.google.com/search?q=%22cell+phone+accessories%22+trends&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N>

<phone accessories" sales billion 2002>
<://www.google.com/search?q=%22cell+phone+accessories%22+sales+billion+2002&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N>

<phone accessories" sales million 2002>
<://www.google.com/search?q=%22cell+phone+accessories%22+sales+million+2002&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N>

<"cell phone market" sales million>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22cell+phone+market%22+sales&as_q=million>


<Hope this helps.>

Thank you, excellent research for the price.