Phone sales soar past 1bn

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 4Q Moto 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.