Mobile phone sales hit the one billion mark worldwide in 2007, marking a 16 per cent increase from the following in year.

Research company Gartner released the report detailing the new sales figures this week, claiming that the increase may be due to the evolving technology in this market.

Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner, said: "Emerging markets, especially China and India, provided much of the growth as many people bought their first phone."

She added that in "mature markets", such as Japan and Western Europe, consumers' appetite for "feature-laden phones" was met with new models packed with TV tuners, global positioning satellite functions and touch screens.

Leader in the mobile phone market was Nokia, which accounted for 40 per cent of the sector after selling 435 million phones.

New entrances into the top ten for the last quarter of 2007 included Research in Motion, ZTE and Apple, which launched its high-profile iPhone last June.

© Adfero Ltd