UK mobile connections slow for Carphone

Even Fierce Wireless picked up the news from yesterday’s Evening Standard that Carphone’s mobile connections aren’t rising at all, year on year. In fact, in the last three months, mobile connections rose 12% against 19% last year.

It could certainly be an aberration but I’m not so sure.

Dunstone said this reflected a fairly flat market for new handset, a slower rate of new store openings and the general slowdown in consumer demand.

‘Demand for BlackBerrys and smart phones like the iPhone is good but not so much for flash voice phones, Dunstone said.

Demand isn’t good for flash voice phones, eh?

I wonder if people are actually going into Carphone Warehouse to renew their phone contracts — or whether more and more are talking directly to their mobile operators?

Looks like Carphone are focusing away from handsets:

‘It is now becoming more important for us to sign people up to broadband than to sell them a new mobile voice package. We have built a business-with strong recurring revenues.’

When was the last time you bought a handset from Carphone Warehouse? I know the SMS Text News readership isn’t exactly Carphone’s demographic, per se.

My last transaction with Carphone was about a month ago — I bought yet another Nokia charger from them for some obscene price. And a Nokia car charger.