So did worldwide mobile phone sales increase in 2009, or was the year a bit flat?

Latest figures from US research house Gartner show that the total number of phones sold worldwide in 2009 was 1.211 billion units, a 0.9% drop from 2008. Most of which one day will end up with the mobile phone recyclers.

On a slightly better note, sales in the fourth quarter of 2009 were actually up 8.3% (340 million units) over the fourth quarter of 2008, so the trend is getting better.

Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, said:
“The mobile devices market finished on a very positive note, driven by growth in smartphones and low-end devices. Smartphone sales to end users continued their strong growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, totalling 53.8 million units, up 41.1% from the same period in 2008. In 2009, smartphone sales reached 172.4 million units, a 23.8 per cent increase from 2008. In 2009, smartphone-focused vendors like Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) successfully captured market share from other larger device producers, controlling 14.4% and 19.9% of the worldwide smartphone market, respectively.”

Gartner also highlighted the intense competition felt by manufacturers in 2009, not only in growing markets such as China and India, but also in the mature markets. But, Gartner reckons that the stronger economic climate will mean better times throughout 2010.

As to the manufacturers themselves, the big five of Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson had mixed fortunes. As a group, they lost market share to the likes of Apple and other manufacturers, with their combined share dropping from 79.7% in 2008 to 75.3% in 2009.

Nokia’s share of the market dropped from 38.6% to 36.4% as pressure on smartphone price points took their toll. Samsung did actually better in 2009, going from 16.3% to 19.5%. LG also showed a market share improvement, up from 8.4% to 10.1%. But Motorola took a hit, falling from 8.7% to 4.8% and Sony Ericsson also showed a decline from 7.6% to 4.5%.

So how many devices did mobile phone giants Nokia sell in the last quarter of 2009 and do they still continue to dominate the market?

In their recent financial results announcement Nokia confirmed that they had sold some 126.9 devices, up 12% on the quarter, but perhaps more significantly, up 17% on the third quarter.

This is especially good when considering that Nokia estimates that overall industry mobile device volumes were only up 8% on the year and 14% from the preceding quarter.

Nokia reckons that they enjoyed a whopping mobile device market share of 39% in the fourth quarter, a 2% increase on the same period last year and 1% more than the previous quarter (Q3 2009).

Although, despite good sales figures and market shares, sales at 12 billion euros were down 5% compared to the fourth quarter 2008 and down a far larger 22% from the preceding quarter.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the CEO of Nokia, said:
“We grew our market share in smartphones in the fourth quarter, driven by the successful launch of new touch and QWERTY models. Our performance in smartphones, combined with continuing success in the emerging markets…Our solid results also owe a good deal to world class supply chain management and impressive sales execution.

“Our focus remains firmly on execution, especially around user experience. Here I want to highlight our move to shake up the navigation market with free walk and drive navigation on our smartphones, a good example of how we are leveraging our assets to bring real benefits to consumers.”

The reference to the smartphones market in the above quote might be seen by some observers as a nod to Nokia struggling in the past to make its prescence felt in the top end of this particularly demanding sector. In other words, it does not have the ‘killer’ device. Many feel that although Nokia does dominate in market share terms, it has not traditionally had a device which can take on the iconic iPhones and BlackBerrys.

Brands are of course fickle things and only time will tell as to whether a Nokia smartphone will genuinely begin to challenge the two brands that are considered the trend setters.

It may be the age of the iconic iPhone, but BlackBerry manufacturers Research in Motion (RIM) are no slouches, announcing that in their last financial quarter to 28 November, 2009, they shipped their 75th Millionth BlackBerry.

The yuppie may be long gone, but as this milestone and RIM’s latest figures prove, although there are hoards who covet the cool lines of an Apple device, there’s plenty out there who prefer the status of the BlackBerry. It has reached the enviable position of being de rigeur for the serous minded business person, allowing you to complete a multi-million pound deal, whilst chatting with your partner and ordering a latte from your neighbourhood coffee shop.

For the three months to 28 November, 2009, the NASDAQ listed company banked a whopping $3.92 billions in revenues. Pretty impressive, but what’s even more impressive is that it was up 11% over the previous quarter and up a staggering 41% over the same quarter last year.

Which means that for the quarter just gone, RIM shipped around 10.1 million devices.

Now BlackBerry’s are regularly handled by the mobile phone recycling companies as those addicted to their digital chirping friends are keen to always have the latest model, so there will always be a willing audience ready to part with their spondula. But what’s great news for RIM is that their sales are not just about their customer’s upgrading their handsets, because during the quarter around 4.5 million new subscriber accounts were added, bringing the total global Blackberry subscriber base to 36 million.

In others words, imagine well over half the people in the UK owning a BlackBerry.

Jim Balsillie was in understandably buoyant mood when he said:
“We are pleased to report record shipments of more than 10 million BlackBerry smartphones during the third quarter with higher than expected revenue, earnings and subscriber growth.

“RIM is experiencing a great start to the holiday buying season and the strong Q3 results and Q4 outlook clearly reflect the strength of our diversified product portfolio as well as the success of our efforts to expand into broader customer segments and new geographies while maintaining our strong position in North America.”

So there you are; if anyone was wondering how the smartphone market seems to be progressing, then have a look at RIM. Not bad at all.

Vodafone intends to please its customers in the new year by making available the iPhone in the UK.

This will no doubt bring a raft of older iPhones to the attention of the mobile phone recyclers.

The Vodafone iPhone will be available to its customers on contract with those paying a £35 paid plan getting a iPhone 3G free.

There are three models available of course, the iPhone 3G 8GB, iPhone 3GS 16GB and iPhone 3GS 32GB. Each are available in a number of plans within the Vodafone contracts.

The iPhone 3GS, whether you get the middle-weight 16GB, or the heavyweight 32GB, is, says its fans, the most powerful iPhone yet, up to twice as fast as the iPhone 3G.

Amongst its many qualities the iPhone 3GS boasts a high quality three megapixel autofocus camera, a longer battery life, simple to use video recording and hands free voice control, just in case you appear in an episode of The Apprentice and want to abuse your fellow team mates in front of the cameras.

All the iPhones connect to the mother ship via the App Store which, whichever way you look at it, has been a phenomenal success, with over two billion downloads up to now. These Apps of course are there to ease life for the modern human, or just make it a wee bit more complicated; take your pick. But if you need advice, or help, on anything, then go to the bountiful App Store.

Vodafone contract customers wielding an iPhone can expect up to one GB of mobile data and unlimited access to Wi-Fi in the home.

Consumer entry point for a Vodafone 3G 8GB is a 24-month contract costing £30 a month and a phone price of £59. This gives you 300 minutes yapping time, unlimited texting ability and a single gig. Top of the pile is the 18-month contract costing a significant £80, but you can jaw on for 3000 minutes, again send unlimited texts and still get one gig; but on the upside, you do get an iPhone 3GS 32GB phone for free.

There is a course a major flaw with mobile phones: they need charging. And they always seem to be in need of a charge at the most inconvenient time. What’s more frustrating, is that when you’ve left your own charger at home, or in the office, you have to find someone with a similar make and model of phone to get some juice. But no longer, because help is at hand.

It’s called the Universal Charging Solution and is a grand initiative between the GSMA and 21 of the leading mobile phone operators and manufacturers.

Simply put, the initiative was announced in February at the Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona and involves a commitment to implement cross-industry standard for a Universal Charging Solution for new mobile phones. In other words, one charger will charge every mobile phone made in the future.

It’s a great idea and, as cynics might suggest, has been resisted for many years because of the additional revenues that a phone manufacturer can generate with its own charger. But if the PR hype is to be believed, then green considerations have for once got the better of the accountants.

The GSMA reckons that there is some 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers out there and that if such a thing as a standardised charger were to be introduced, then there would be an estimated 50 per cent reduction in standby energy consumption.

The initiative was launched by the GSMA at the Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona. It was supported by 3 Group, AT&T, HTC, KT, LG, mobilkom austria, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, Orascom Telecom, Qualcomm, Rogers Wireless, Samsung, Softbank Mobile, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

And collectively they have a dream: that by 2012 the worldwide market will be using a Micro-USB charging interface and that the majority of new mobile phones will support a universal charging connector.

In short, that means soon you won’t have to embark on an epic search in order to get your phone charged because, hopefully, everyone will have one that will work on your phone. Good luck.