The Canberra Times reports on page three today that Australia’s love affair with mobile phones has scaled new heights.

It says, according to the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) a record 10,056,640 mobile phones were shipped to Australian stores in the year to May – the first time annual sales have passed 10 million.

The figure suggests that one in every two Australians have bought a new mobile phone in the past year.

In May alone, new phone shipments approached 800,000 – up 7.5 per cent in the previous May.

CommSec chief equities economist Craig James said mobile phone sales had hit annual record highs in each of the past four months and showed no signs of slowin g.

“Australians love tech goods like mobile phones, computers and iPods and there are no signs of mobile phone sales reaching saturation point,” he said.

The Australian launch of Apples’s iPhone on July 11 should boost sales further.