Phone makers outlook in focus in grimmer economy

Investors will look to handset vendors' quarterly reports in coming days for signs of how much the global economic slowdown will hit cellphone sales in the crucial year-end shopping season.

While the outlook for consumer spending has worsened in recent weeks, analysts have changed their fourth-quarter cellphone sales forecasts only slightly, with a Reuters poll showing they expect a historically normal 12 percent quarter-on-quarter rise. Surging demand for new smartphone models has driven sales growth for the cellphone industry in the past few years, recovering from a sharp downturn in 2008-2009 when the financial crisis hurt consumer spending on gadgets. Analysts are betting on strong sales of latest models from the likes of Apple, HTC and Samsung will balance out a weaker outlook for smartphone laggards Nokia Oyj and LG Electronics.