South Korean mobile maker LG has beaten rival Motorola to third place in the global mobile phone market, after outselling the US firm's handsets in 2008.
The figures, published by DigiTimes, show that LG outsold Motorola by just 100,000 mobile phones to leapfrog the manufacturer into the much coveted third place position. DigitTimes' table of total projected sales in 2008 shows Nokia staying put at 470 million units, with Samsung following at 200 million units.
LG's new position sees the company at 100 million units, while Motorola and Sony Ericsson trail behind at 99.9 and 96.6 million units respectively. The news is sure to come as a blow to Motorola, which recently announced that it was scaling back its handset division through job cuts and a reduction in the number of phones it will release in 2009. Sony Ericsson has also been experiencing problems as the company was recently refused permission to use Sony's PSP branding on its much-anticipated PSP phone.
On the other hand, while Nokia is still enjoying pole position in the mobile phone market, the Finnish mobile giant is expected to report weaknesses in global demand for its handsets this week as a result of the financial constraints experienced by consumers during the economic downturn.
Nevertheless, despite the doom and gloom, a study released by Forrester Research in December indicated that the mobile phone market may be set to defy the global economic downturn and remain strong in 2009.
According to the analysts, the Asia-Pacific region will see the strongest growth while the iPhone is predicted to be the handset that makes the most significant impact.
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