CommSec says in its Economic Insights bulletin released this week that mobile phone shipments have risen for the fifth time in six months.

Using AMTA’s handset shipment figures, CommSec says just over 9.1 milliom phones were shipped in the past year and the rolling annual total is at a 10-month high.

In August, AMTA reported that 595,567 mobile phones were shipped to Australia, up 30.7 per cent on a year ago. Mobile phone shipments have grown in annual terms in five of the past six months.

CommSec Equities Economist, Savanth Sebastian, says the shipment figures are a timely gauge of consumer spending.

“And for the fifth time in six months, phone shipments were higher than a year ago. By now you would have expected mobile phones to have reached saturation point. But with contracts regularly turning over and new features constantly introduced, Australians are as keen as ever to update their mobile phones.

“The rising trend of mobile phone sales represents good news for a raft of businesses such as department and electrical goods stores.”