More than 300 million mobile phones and devices shipped worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to
IDC's "Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker." That was a record, and was up 15.3% over the previous quarter.
Total shipments for 2007 reached 1,144.1 million units, up 12.4% over 2006.
Mobile phone shipment growth may have plateaued, indicating a maturing market. Despite the record number of units shipped, the growth figure was actually lower that in previous years.
"Over the last three years, growth in the industry during the holiday quarter has fluctuated from 18.0% to 30.0%, and this past quarter
we saw it drop to 11.6%," said Ryan Reith, senior research analyst at IDC.
"The expectation that the market would maintain the level of growth it saw over the last three years was unrealistic," Mr. Reith said. "We expect
growth to be in the single digits throughout 2008, and most likely for years to follow."