Nokia emerges as top mobile phone maker in Q3

Nokia is the world's leading provider of mobile telephones in the third quarter, capturing 35.1% of the market after 32.5% in the same period last year, a study by the Gartner institute, quoted by an AFP report, said.

The AFP report said Motorola was in second place, with market share of 20.6%, up from 18.7% a year earlier.

Samsung of South Korea saw its share of the world market fall to 12.2 % from 12.5 in third quarter 2005, the report added.

Overall, worldwide sales of mobile phones rose 21.5 % to 251 million units in the third quarter. Gartner foresaw total sales this year of 986 million units.

The most dynamic region in the third quarter was Asia-Pacific, with sales of 80.8 million units, a 54.7 % increase, and notably in emerging market countries such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines, the report said.

But in Japan mobile sales fell 4.7% to 10.7 million units, the report further said.