1.15 Billion Handset units sold in 2007

Handset sales hit 1.15 billion units in 2007, up 16 per cent on 2006, said Gartner.
The market watcher added that fourth quarter sales reached 330 million units. However, it expects growth in 2008 to slow to about 10 per cent as mature markets become saturated.

Among manufacturers Nokia achieved its target of 40 per cent market share in the fourth quarter of 2007 when it sold slightly more than 133 million phones. Nokia increased its market share in all regions except North America.

Motorola sold 39 million phones to take second spot with 14.3 per cent of the market.

But this was down from 21.1 per cent in 2006. And, by 4th quarter, Motorola was behind Samsung, which surged past it thanks to strong sales of its Ultra and Ultra II family of products. Samsung increased its yearly market share to 13.4 per cent.

Sony Ericsson ended 2007 a quarterly share of nine per cent and robust Walkman and Cyber-shot brands. LG's sales totalled 23.5 million units in 4Q to grab 7.1 per cent market share. It increased quarterly sales by three million.

Sales of all the handset manufacturers had increased except Motorola and Moto is expected to continue to lose more market share and it wont be surprising that Sony Ericsson and LG will overtake them in 2008. The Moto brand is lowly perceived at the present moment and they need more than a miracle to crawl their way back into the competition. The strength of emerging market demand meant that handset sales were likely to be “relatively immune to a recession” in the US and western Europe.

Strong sales in China and India lifted Chinese handset supplier ZTE into top ten for the first time with a 1.2% market share. But the popularity of high-end BlackBerry and iPhone devices also put smartphone vendors RIM and Apple in the top ten. Taiwan’s BenQ, France’s Sagem and China-based Bird were the three displaced from the top group.