For the first time ever, sales of mobile phones exceeded 1 billion last year according to market research firm Gartner. Some 1.15 billion mobile phones were sold in 2007 compared to 990.9 million in 2006, marking a 16 percent increase. Much of the growth is attributed to emerging markets like China and India where many were buying their first phone.
The top three were Nokia (its marketshare grew to 37.8 percent with an even higher 40.4 percent share in the last quarter), Motorola (its marketshare shrunk to 14.3 percent) and Samsung (its marketshare grew to 13.4 percent). Sony Ericsson and LG round out the top five.
In the fourth quarter, there were three new entrants to the top 10: Research In Motion (RIM), ZTE and Apple. It will be interesting to watch how these fare in 2008.