Handsets sales pegged at 1.28 bn

According to a new Gartner report, mobile handset sales are to see an upswing of 11% over 2007 to 1.28 billion units. This is notwithstanding decrease in demand in Europe and Japan. The higher demand in Asia-Pac is expected to compensate for the drop in Europe and Japan. The report also notes that handset vendors would bolster their revenues with content services ecosystems a la iTunes of Apple. New entrants like Ovi from Nokia and PlayNow from Sony Ericsson also into the content and differentiated services game. Motorola is planning its Motomusic launch to compete with iTunes.