Mobile phone manufacturers shipped a total of 299.0 million handsets in Q3 2008, up only 3.2% YoY and down 0.4% compared to Q2 2008. Historically Q3 experiences a ramp-up in sales in preparation for the holiday season. In previous years this ramp up has created an increase in sales of 20% or more in the third quarter.
 

The market for smartphones, a subset of the overall mobile device market did however posted strong gains for the quarter and continues to dominate the growth in this sector.
 
The industry leader is Nokia with shipments higher than Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Motorola combined. Samsung has jumped in second place, shipping over fifty million units in Q3. Sony Ericsson takes third place worldwide for the first time in its history. Motorola’s volumes were still a fraction of what they used to be and the division posted another quarter of operating loss as the eke out fourth place. Finally, LG Electronics sank into fifth place during the quarter.

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