Shipments of mobile phones and PHS handsets in Japan fell 28 percent in January from a year earlier to 3,274,000 units, marking an eighth consecutive month of decline, an industry group said Tuesday.
Shipments of mobile phones, including car phones, decreased 26 percent to 3,083,000 units, also down for the eighth straight month, while those of PHS handsets dropped 48.2 percent to 191,000 units, logging an 11th straight monthly fall, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said.
Increasing shipments of so-called third-generation cell phones failed to offset slowing growth in the number of new subscribers and slackening demand for Internet-accessible mobile phone services, while the nation's flagging economy also played a part in the decline, the association said.
The nearly halved shipments of PHS handsets reflected a decrease in the number of new subscribers, it said.
The monthly shipment data were calculated from figures supplied by 16 mobile phone manufacturers and 16 PHS makers.