Worldwide sales of mobile phones skyrocketed to 1.5 billion in 2007, according to research firm Gartner, a 16 percent increase from 2006 sales of 990.9 million. Sales at the end of the year matched a trend that has demand spiking in the fourth quarter. Fourth-quarter sales reached 330 million.

“Emerging markets, particularly China and India, provided much of the growth as many public bought their first phone,” said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner. “In mature markets, such as Japan and Western Europe, consumers’ appetite for feature-laden phones was met with new models packed with TV tuners, global positioning satellite functions, touch screens and high-resolution cameras.”

Nokia is the Global Leader

Nokia continues its global leadership with a 40 percent market share in the fourth quarter, when it sold slightly more than 133 million phones. Samsung maintained second place and, although its market share slipped slightly, the gap widened within Samsung and third-place Motorola.

The problems that beset Motorola in the third quarter continued in the fourth quarter. The company recorded global sales of 39 million for the quarter, taking 11.9 percent of the market.

Motorola retained second place in annual sales, Gartner reported, largely thanks to the stock it disposed of in the first half of the year. Nevertheless, the extent of Motorola’s troubles can be seen in the 9.7 percent drop in its market share in the fourth quarter from the same period in 2006.

Sony Ericsson ended 2007 with another positive performance, growing its market share on a quarterly basis to nine percent from 8.7 percent. And LG’s mobile-phone sales totaled 23.5 million in the fourth quarter, maintaining its 7.1 percent market share despite a sales increase of more than 3 million..

The Ones to Watch

The market saw three new players in the top 10 for the fourth quarter…

Orginal post by Top Tech News