Domestic shipments of mobile phones and personal handy-phone handsets dropped 24.2 percent in November from a year ago to 3,229,000 units, marking a sixth consecutive month of decline, an industry group said Tuesday.
Increased shipments of third-generation mobile phones failed to offset the impact of slowing demand for new subscriptions and the latest models, said the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association.
Shipments of PHS handsets fell by 3.7 percent to 236,000 units, marking a ninth straight monthly fall.
This decline was smaller, however, than the 19.2 percent drop registered during the previous month, thanks to favorable demand for data communication services at a fixed charge, the association said.
The monthly shipment data were calculated from figures supplied by 16 mobile phone manufacturers and 16 PHS manufacturers.