 Nokia sees Asia and Africa as the key growth markets |
Nokia predicts that the global mobile phone market will grow 15% this year, driven by increased sales in developing markets in Asia and Africa. The Finnish giant had previously estimated that the overall world market would expand by 10% in 2006.
It predicts that Asian and African countries will account for 80% of the industry's growth this year.
Nokia, the world's largest phone-maker, did not give any details of its own sales targets for 2006.
Speaking at the firm's annual general meeting, its chief executive Jorma Ollila would instead only say that the firm was "well placed for some new innovative leaps".
Nokia currently has a global market share of 34%, ahead of Motorola's 18%, Samsung's 11%, and LG and Sony Ericsson which have 6.6% each.