IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker says that the international mobile phone market grew steadily during the third quarter of 2007. Wordwide venders have shipped a total of 289.1 million units–9% more than the previous quarter and 13.8% than the same quarter a year ago. The growth was affected by high-volume shipments of affordable handsets into emerging markets, and feature-packed, high-end units into mature markets.

Nokia is at number one of the top five mobile phone vendors, shipping over 100 million units during the third quarter and the last one. Considering that the company was handicapped by component shortages, this is very impressive. The high volume of entry level models like the 1110 and the 1116, however, allowed Nokia to realize operating margin improvement due to lowered cost structures, scalability, distribution, and brand recognition.

Coming up behind is Samsung and Motorola. Samsung is at the number two spot over Motorola by 5.4 million units. The former realized it’s double-digit profit margin by selling more high-end devices. Motorola improved sales despite its consecutive operating losses by coming out with the Motorola U9, Z6, and the RAZR 2. Sony Ericsson is at the fourth place, thanks to the high-end Walkman branded phones and mid-tier phones like the W200. Bringing up the rear is LG Electronic, which fell behind Sony Ericsson by just 4 million units. Up until today, LG relies on entry level devices to attract first time users, which negatively impacts their profits.

[via cellular news]