Analysts Lower Worldwide Market Forecast For Cellphones

Despite the iPhone’s blockbuster start this weekend, Gartner said today it was lowering it’s forecast for how many cellphones will sell this year, Reuters reports. Gartner said it is now predicting the cellphone market to grow by 10 to 11 percent, which is lower than its May forecast of 10 to 15 percent. Last year, the cellphone sales grew by 16 percent. Carolina Milanesi, Gartner’s head of mobile device research told Reuters: “In the last month however, the economic environment started to negatively impact emerging markets as well as mature.” Both Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) have reported some weakness. Gartner said that the second half of the year will be strong, but that it may not make up for the slow start.