Handset sales in S. Korea drop 16 pct in Feb.

SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) -- The number of mobile phones sold in South Korea dipped
approximately 16 percent last month from a year earlier, hit by a slowing
economy, but sales improved from the previous month on the back of back-to-school
seasons, handset makers said Monday.
A total of 1.68 million handsets is estimated to have been sold last month, a
drop of 16.4 percent from last year, when 2.01 million units of cellphones were
sold, according to the statistics by handset makers.
The February figure was up 8.6 percent from the previous month, they said.
Samsung Electronics Co., the country's No. 1 handset maker, said it sold some
840,000 mobile phones in February, or 50.3 percent of all handsets sold during
the month.
No. 2 player LG Electronics Co. said it sold 501,000 phones in February, claiming
a market share of about 29 percent.
More than nine out of 10 people in South Korea, known as one of the world's most
wired nations, owned a mobile phone last year, according to the government report
in January.
There were 45.6 million cell phone users in Korea at the end of last year, up by
2.1 million from 2007.
Considering the nation's population of some 48.62 million, 93 percent of Koreans
use cell phones, while every Korean household has an average of 2.73 mobile
phones, the report said.
ygkim@yna.co.kr
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