NEC in Handset Talks with Global Carriers

A senior executive of NEC notes they are in talks with several major U.S. and EU mobile carriers to sell handsets overseas: http://bit.ly/l0rXah

A senior executive of NEC Corp. (6701) said Thursday that the Japanese electronics maker is in talks with several major U.S. and European mobile carriers to sell more handsets overseas. Senior Vice President Takemitsu Kunio said “it won’t take long” for overseas handset sales to surpass those in Japan by volume.

Given Japan’s declining population, “it will be natural that overseas markets will come to account for more of our sales,” said Kunio, head of NEC’s personal solutions business unit, which includes personal computers and mobile handsets. “We have to make that happen soon.” NEC sold 4.4 million mobile handsets in the last fiscal year, and expects to sell 7.4 million this fiscal year, with about 30% to be sold overseas.

In the next fiscal year, NEC aims to sell 12 million mobile handsets, with about 5 million, or nearly 40%, in overseas markets. NEC said much of the growth in handset sales will come from the rapid expansion of the market for smartphones, both in Japan and globally. Via Nikkei