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The ubiquitous mobile phone has revolutionized the means we live today. It is easy to just take it for granted, but less than twenty years ago no one was even using this gadget. Today, more than 4.1 billion people use the device. That represents a massive sixty six per cent of the world’s population.

It is easy to see why the mobile phone industry has swollen to a billion dollar one. With the advent of the digital age, the one goal that everyone was aiming for was to make the world a global village. This involved improving communications and reducing the barriers that divide the world’s citizens. A cell phone is one of the most flexible gadgets to accomplish this. It is easy to just suppose that this handy gadget is just for making calls, but it is a lot more than that.

Today, the mobile phones represent the oxygen need for the thriving business community as well as something that people can personally vouch for. Unfortunately, not everyone is celebrating because the profits raked in by the cell phone operators are decreasing continuously. The saturation of the market plus the astronomical costs involved in developing new networks as well as maintaining existing ones have all eaten into the profit margins.

Despite having shipped 1.2 billion phones in 2008, the mobile phone manufacturers are pessimistic about the future. The growth rate is not as high as it used to be. Most of the markets are flooded by a number of competitors and penetration is getting more challenging by the day. The tough economy has taken a beating on all industries and the mobile phone industry too is no exception.
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The tell tale signs are evident in the market. Typically, mobile phone manufacturers add a sleuth of new features to their products every year but the previous year was barely discernible. There was no separate or note worthy feature added and the product launches were few and far in between. It looks like the tentacles of the global economic recession have sunk in the cell phone market as well.

There was virtually no competition to this gadget and it grew by leaps and bounds in the past twenty five years. With handsets getting cheaper every day, the thresholds are approaching and it will soon be virtually impossible to constrict the platform any more. Manufacturers need to think of newer ways to improve profits as well as have larger volumes.

The network operators are reeling in heavy losses as well. The capitalization and licensing fees in all the high end markets are slowly making them dig deeper in their reserves. However, the good news is that there is still a positive growth and as long as that is present, the cell phone industry has little less to fret about.

Like with all other industries, the cell phone industry too is a victim of its environment. Once the market improves, then this industry will catch up as well. It is only a matter of time before the mobile phone industry can regain its past glory and supremacy.