Emerging Markets And Feature-Rich Phones Upped Handset Sales in 2007: Report

Consumers thirsting for high-end phones with TV tuners, GPS, touch screens and fancy cameras, along with first-time phone owners in emerging markets, drove worldwide phone sales to 1.15 billion last year, a 16 percent increase over 2006, according to a new report from Gartner.

Some highlights:

-- North America had a record quarter in Q407, as sales reached 49 million phones, an increase of 9.2 percent over the year ago period. AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) had the strongest performance.

-- Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Q4 market share increased to 40 percent worldwide by selling slightly more than 133 million phones. The Finnish handset maker increased its market share in all regions, except in North America, where it continued to struggle. In Western Europe, Nokia's high-end phones (like the N95, N82 and N73) were the most popular.

-- Motorola (NYSE: MOT) was the only major handset maker to lose market share last year, falling to 14.3 percent in 2007 from 21.1 percent in 2006. In Q4, Motorola ranked third, falling behind both Nokia and Samsung.

-- Samsung ranked second in Q4 with a market share of 13.4 percent based on the success of its Ultra and Ultra II family of products; Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) placed fourth, increasing its market share to 9 percent with strong sales of its Cyber-shot and Walkman products; LG (SEO: 066570) ranked fifth maintaining a 7.1 percent market share based on the success of the Viewty, the Venus and the Voyager.

-- Three new handset makers made it into the top ten during Q4: RIM's (NSDQ: RIMM) BlackBerry, ZTE and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). ZTE made it based on aggressive pricing in emerging markets; RIM was popular based on functionality and Apple based on brand and design.

-- In 2008, handset sales growth will likely slow to about 10 percent as mature markets get more saturated.