Japan Phone Shipments Plummet

According to Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA), the total volume of cell phone shipments in Japan has been reduced by as much as 47.9% year-on-year (YoY) to 2,084,000 units as of August this year. JEITA also mentioned that the summer selling season was rather lacklustre, since most handsets released over the summer had minor increments in terms of functionality. In addition, a change in marketing method has resulted in end users paying for more than before, hence turning away would-be buyers. With every dark cloud, here’s the silver lining – handsets with a 1seg broadcasting reception function managed to go up a notch by 20.9% to 1,774,000 units.