The worldwide mobile phone market passed a new milestone in shipments by recording over 300 million devices shipped during the fourth quarter, while experiencing slower year-over-year growth for 2007. According to IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, the 334.0 million handsets shipped during the holiday quarter was a new record for the industry, and was up 15.3% over last quarter.

For the entire year, total shipments reached 1,144.1 million units in 2007 with 12.4% overall growth. Nokia once again led vendors in shipments throughout the year, although some shakeup in the vendor rankings did occur. Samsung, which had been the number three vendor in the industry, surpassed Motorola during 2007 to capture the number two spot.

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Nokia shipped more units in the fourth quarter than the next three vendors’ shipment volumes combined. This, Nokia executives pointed out, was the result of its streamlined operations, which produced on average nearly 1.5 million units each day during the quarter. This number could have been even higher if the company did not have to deal with component shortages during production. Regardless, it still marks a significant accomplishment. Nokia’s volumes were primarily driven by entry level products from its 1100 and 1200 device families, but its biggest revenue and profit generators came from its premium Nseries devices.

Samsung achieved several noteworthy accomplishments to end 2007: It took the No. 2 position worldwide for the year, posted its third consecutive quarter as the No. 2 vendor worldwide, and recorded its sixth consecutive quarter of shipment growth.

Motorola spent another quarter addressing its challenges, the most significant being a slowing demand for Motorola’s products. CEO Greg Brown pointed out that the company had missed out on significant growth areas, most notably in 3G, China, and emerging markets, and that gaps in Motorola’s current product portfolio had to be addressed.

Sony Ericsson broke through the thirty million unit mark for the first time in its history. As in previous quarters, EMEA represented the bulk of the company’s shipments, but it also improved its presence in North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. Even with greater attention and resources going towards emerging markets, Sony Ericsson still recorded the highest ASP among the leading vendors. Key devices for the quarter included the K550, W200, W300 and the W580.

LG Electronics took another step towards breaking the 25 million mark, and with the success of premium devices in developed markets and cost effectiveness, the company also realized slight operating margin improvement. Key to its success were several models released during the quarter, including the Voyager and Venus in the United States, and the Viewty in Europe.