While China's blistering economic growth is cooling, Nokia Corp. said it still expects fast expansion of its business there and in other emerging markets because there are still plenty of people who don't yet have mobile phones.

China is the world's largest mobile market, with over 600 million mobile-phone users. But with a population of 1.33 billion, the country offers a large pool of other potential customers.

Chief Financial Officer Rick Simonson said Nokia sold 70.7 million phones in China last year, for a total of 6.2 billion euros (US$8.25 billion) in revenue.

'There's still a lot of penetration to go in the China market before it's saturated,' Mr. Simonson said.

Nokia, the world's largest mobile-phone maker by unit sales, leads its competitors in selling cheap handsets and holds a commanding market share in markets such as India and China.

Nokia's global market share for the first nine months of the year slipped to 38% from 40% as rivals slashed the prices of handsets to levels that the company said were 'unsustainable.' But Nokia said it expects to hold or gain market share in the fourth quarter.

Mr. Simonson also isn't concerned with slowing economic growth in China. The country's third-quarter gross domestic product grew 9% from a year earlier, slowing from the 10.4% expansion in the first half.

Phones costing less than 50 euros accounted for half of Nokia's sales volume in the third quarter, and a majority of those sold for less than 30 euros, Mr. Simonson said.

Aaron Back

中国一片火热的经济增长逐渐降温之时，诺基亚公司(Nokia Corp.)表示其在中国及其他新兴市场的业务预计仍将实现快速发展，因为还有很多人尚未拥有手机。

中国是世界最大的手机市场，拥有逾6亿户手机用户。但这个有13.3亿人口的国家还有大量的潜在顾客。

诺基亚首席财务长西蒙森(Rick Simonson)说，公司去年在中国售出7,070万台手机，总收入62亿欧元（合82.5亿美元）。

西蒙森说，中国市场离达到饱和还有很大的空间。

销量居世界之冠的诺基亚凭借低端手机的销售领先于竞争对手，在印度和中国等市场占据了具有绝对优势的市场份额。

今年前9个月，诺基亚在全球市场的份额从40%下滑至38%，原因是竞争对手将手机售价大幅调低至诺基亚认为"无法支撑"的水平。但诺基亚表示，预计第四季度其将保持现有市场份额，并有可能实现增长。

西蒙森也并不担心中国经济增长减缓。中国第三季度国内生产总值较上年同期增长9%，较上半年的10.4%有所放缓。

西蒙森说，价格在50欧元以下的手机占了诺基亚第三季度销量的一半，其中大多数售价都不超过30欧元。

Aaron Back