You can't keep Nokia down
We're No. 1!
Nokia remains the king of the cell phone world and it shows no signs of being pushed from its throne anytime soon. According to figures that IDC released yesterday, the Finnish mobile giant held a 38.6 percent worldwide market in the third quarter this year, an increase from 34.8 percent during the same period a year earlier. As for phone shipments, Nokia shipped 111.7 million devices in the third quarter. That's a big jump from 88.5 million devices in the third quarter of 2006, mostly because of increases in the entry-level market.
Samsung came in at a distant second with a 14.7 percent market share. That figure put it above Motorola, which held the No. 2 spot last year. IDC said Samsung benefited from high sales of its Ultra Edition handsets.
Meanwhile, Moto saw its market share drop from 21.1 percent last year to 12.9 percent this year. While the company was the only manufacturer to show a drop in shipments (53.7 million to 37.2 million), Moto was able to grow over the second quarter of this year in part because of its Razr2 line.
Though Sony Ericsson is a small player in North America, it held onto the No. 4 spot with a market share of 9 percent. IDC singled out the W580 and W200 as particularly successful models. LG also grew, from 6.5 percent to 7.6 percent, but it remained as the fifth-largest cell phone vendor. It shipped 21.9 million phones in the third quarter of this year, compared with 16.6 handsets in 2006.
Kent German is a senior editor for cell phone reviews at CNET. When he's not testing the newest handsets on the market, he's blogging about cell phone news for Crave. In his On Call column, he answers reader questions and gives his take on the rapidly changing mobile industry. E-mail Kent. 
