While the slowing housing industry has made headline after headline in today's uncertain economic environment, sluggish sales of a more widespread commodity indicates we are indeed gripping our wallets just that bit tighter. Sales of mobile phone handsets have dropped in Western Europe for the first time in over seven years, according to IT research company, Gartner.
Two manufacturers who have particularly felt the crunch so far this year are Motorola and Sony Ericsson. Motorola has faltered in finding a phone to follow in the footsteps of its popular Razr (perhaps more vowels would be beneficial in the next model?), while Sony Ericsson has simply attributed their results to a difficult market.
While the credit crunch may be to blame for Western Europe's falling sales (down by 16.4 per cent from last year) phone operators here may be able to share some blame with their recent push for consumers to buy high-end devices.
Gartner noted that sales of high-end devices have taken a beating as consumers wanting to upgrade their handset are looking at mid-tier phones which are often free and attached to short, less expensive contracts, whereas high-end devices usually mean you'll be paying for the long haul.
While these figures obviously have repercussions for phone companies, there is another troubling side-effect. Yes, the quality of facebook profile pictures will reduce dramatically as cameras on mid-tier phones just won't capture that drunken moment with the same level of necessary detail. I think we all need to prepare for this reality.
It's not all gloom and doom for phone manufacturers though, sales for most of the rest of the world have increased by 13.6 per cent from this time last year which is not to be sneezed at. The Asia/Pacific region in particular had very healthy growth thanks to a high number of new subscribers, and lower phone costs.
Manufacturers with flagging sales in the UK may learn a potential lesson from this part of the world; either the UK undergoes a baby boom or the cost of buying and using mobile phones needs to fall for sales to raise once more. Seeing as it may take a while for a newborn to figure out predictive text let alone purchase a mobile phone, the first idea, granted, isn't very practical. Lowering communication costs? I've got both hands up for that one.
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