Mobile phone shipments have risen for the fourth time in five months with just over nine million mobiles shipped in the past year and the rolling annual total hitting a nine-month high, says CommSec using AMTA’s shipment figures.

CommSec’s chief equities economist, Craig James, said: “It is quite timely that new (AMTA shipment) figures on mobile phones have come out on the day that Telstra and SingTel (Optus) are reporting earnings.

“According to the telcos, earnings have been supported by higher mobile phone sales and that is backed up by the latest data.

“Over the past year over nine million phones were sold and the sales pace has accelerated in recent months. Certainly new models are coming out all the time and Aussies are keen to embrace any improvement in functionality – no matter how small.

“The fact that mobile sales are lifting yet again is yet more evidence of the revival of the Aussie consumer. Recent retail sales data has shown that discretionary or non-essential items have returned to shopping lists as consumers become more confident about economic conditions.”

Mr James said In July, the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association reported that 561,743 mobile phones were shipped to stores (in effect, mobile phone sales), up 3.1 per cent on a year ago. Mobile phone shipments have grown in annual terms in four of the past fine month.

Sales for the past three months were up 7.0 per cent on the same period of 2008, continuing the consistent improvement in trend terms over the past 11 months. The annual growth rate of this smoothed measure is at 14-month highs.

After peaking with annual sales of just over 10 million units in the year to May 2008, mobile phone sales retreated to an annual rate of just over 8.8 million units. But the annual rate of sales is rising yet again and in the year to July 9.02 million mobiles were shipped (sold).

Mr James said in his Economic Insights bulletin that AMTA releases data on mobile phone shipments each month. The figures collected for AMTA by Informark record the number of shipments, rather than sales. Because Australia is a transshipment point, some handsets that arrive in the country are shipped to other destinations in the South Pacific. But while figures on handset shipments don’t fully translate to sales, they are nevertheless a useful proxy. The data on mobile phone shipments is a guide to consumer spending.

AMTA’s shipment figures can be viewed under Industry Statistics at www.amta.org.au