Nokia leads the pack, Apple plays catch-up

Ever wondered how many units Nokia has sold? Well, today, Nokia confirmed that it has sold over 100 million cellphones this spring, solidifying its dominance of the global cellphone business. The results for this year is significantly higher than the result of last year by 29 percent. This growth was attributed to its dominance in smartphone sales. Over 9 million N-series and 2 million E-series were sold. Their front line phone is the Nokia N95 smartphone.

This result placed Nokia ahead of Samsung, Motorola, Sony-Ericsson and LG. Apple on the other hand, with its iPhone, needs to catch up with this mobile phone giants. Apple chief Steve Jobs projected that the company will sell about 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008, or about 1 percent of the market as it was in 2006.

But experts predict that Apple will play a major role in the market with their iPhone. "The iPhone is likely to have a disproportionately large impact on the industry," IDC mobile director Shiv Bakhshi said. "It could forever alter the structural relationship between device vendors and mobile operators who have traditionally controlled the mobile environment, especially in the US."