2006 saw sales of more than 1 billion mobile phones

2006 saw sales of more than 1 billion mobile phones

Market researcher IDC has said that the holiday season in December helped the mobile market achieve the yearly sales to cross 1 billion units.

IDC said in its report that the mobile phone makers around the world shipped a record high 294.9 million mobile phones in the last three months of 2006.

The full year total crossed 1 billion units to touch a total of 1.02 billion.

The sales figure for the fourth quarter of last year was an improvement of 20 percent compared to the same period in 2005. The year 2005 saw sales of around 832.8 million wireless handsets.

The report further said that emerging markets including Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America contributed much more compared to previous years.