Nokia in the third quarter accounted for nearly four in 10 handsets shipped worldwide, as the overall mobile-phone market grew a healthy 6.4% from the previous quarter, a market research firm said. The Finnish mobile phone maker shipped 111.7 million units, a 10.8% increase from the 100.8 million units sold in the second quarter. The increase, which was more than the collective increases in shipments from the other four top suppliers, raised Nokia"s market share to 39.5% from 37.9% in the second quarter.
"Nokia is capitalizing on the increasing popularity of multimedia- and business-oriented applications for mobile phones," iSuppli analyst Tina Teng said in a report released this week. "The company"s shipments of convergence mobile phones that integrate multimedia and smart-phone features grew by 53.8% in the third quarter of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006." Nokia also led other handset makers in operating profit in the third quarter, achieving an exceptionally healthy 22.2% operating margin. The average for the top five suppliers was 10.5%.