If Carl Sagan were still alive, all the wireless associations around the world could have tapped him for his famous, though-never-actually-uttered, catch phrase.

One out of every 6 people on the planet bought a cell phone last year. (Before reading this next part, think Dr. Evil, pinky on cheek). That's one. B-i-l-l-i-o-n. Handsets sold. Bwah-ha-ha-ha-haaaa. I guess that made it a very good year for the likes of Nokia and others.

It may have taken 23 long years, but the wireless industry calculates that it sold just over one billion mobile phones in 2006. Reaching that landmark had been predicted as early as Spring 2006, but a slowdown in the market in 2Q06 caused analysts to revise that number downward. The good news is, the latter half of the year, and the fourth quarter in particular, showed a surge in sales, which pushed the number over that whopping figure of one billion. Too bad at this rate they'll never match McDonald's "billions and billions" of hamburgers sold, but we should all be okay with that.

If Carl Sagan were still alive, all the wireless associations around the world could have tapped him for his famous, though-never-actually-uttered, catch phrase. He would have been a marketing genius for them, no doubt. He and Letterman could have said it together: "Billions and billions."

It came as no surprise to see Nokia with the number one spot in terms of world market share, with a huge lead at 35.2%. Motorola made slight gains, probably boosted by sales of the Q, from 20.8 to 21.9%. Samsung slipped a little bit further down toward the rest of the pack from 11.9 to 10.7%. The rest of the pack--Sony Ericsson and LG--are way behind the leaders and have some serious ground to make up.

A good part of the sales surge in the fourth quarter came from Nokia, which skipped right over the 100 million mark to rake in 106 double large. A lot of the increase in Nokia's sales came from emerging markets. The one negative here is that prices on cell phones dipped a bit, which ate into profit figures a bit. But I have to say, if those wacky Finns can sell 106 million handsets in a quarter and over 300 million in a year, they can probably stand to have the prices go down a few bucks per device.

I bet the Nokia party at 3GSM in Barcelona this year will be even more insane than in previous years. Do I hear the Leningrad Cowboys warming up already?

 

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