Sales of mobile phones are on the rise again, with global handset sales leaping 19.2 per cent year on year during Q2 and rising 6.7 per cent on the previous quarter, according to the latest figures from market research agency IDC.

More than 118.3 million handsets shipped around the world last quarter, despite the troubled global economy and SARS' ability to persuade Far Eastern consumers to stay at home.

While Nokia maintained its leadership position, Sony Ericsson re-joined the top five vendors chart during Q2 on the back of T610 sales in Europe and Japanese cameraphone sales. Samsung too increased its market share, bringing it ever closer to Motorola, whose market share fell year on year, from 17.4 per cent to 13.4 per cent.

Samsung's success can be attributed to an aggressive product strategy, IDC said, which increased its presence in both GSM and CDMA markets. Motorola, by contrast, has shipped only nine new models this year and has only just hopped onto the cameraphone bandwagon.

Cameras certainly appear to be one of the factors that are persuading consumers to upgrade their existing handsets. "After remarkable success in Japan, cameraphones are attracting worldwide interest, and coupled with color displays and subsidized pricing, the overall mobile phone market is seeing significant growth in 2003," said IDC research analyst Ross Sealfon.

Smartphones too are wowing buyers. IDC reiterated its smartphone sales figures, which show a 330.7 per cent increase in Q2 2003 shipments over the same period last year, and 12 per cent over Q1 2003.

But at just 1.7 per cent of the handset market, smartphones remain a minority interest among mobile phone users. Still that's up on the 0.5 per cent IDC measured this time last year.

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