Mobile phone sales may be coming under pressure, but suppliers recorded over 300 million devices shipped during the fourth quarter.

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.

While Nokia led the field, Samsung, which had been the number three vendor in the industry, surpassed Motorola during 2007 to capture the number two spot.

"Samsung capitalised on replacement handset opportunities in the US and Europe with a steady stream of mid-range and high-end devices while Motorola spent much of the year addressing inventory challenges across EMEA and Asia," said Ramon Llamas, research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team.

"Now that Motorola is implementing a new handset strategy, it will be interesting to watch the hotly contested number two position in 2008," said Llamas.

“Over the last three years, growth in the industry during the holiday quarter has fluctuated from 18.0% to 30.0%, and this past quarter we saw it drop to 11.6%,” said Ryan Reith, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

“The expectation that the market would maintain the level of growth it saw over the last three years was unrealistic. We expect growth to be in the single digits throughout 2008, and most likely for years to follow,” said Reith.

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.

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 posted its third consecutive quarter as the No. 2 vendor worldwide, and recorded its sixth consecutive quarter of shipment growth. In the process, Samsung realized double-digit profit margins during the quarter, resulting from an emphasis on its premium Ultra Edition phones and converged mobile devices.

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.