Nokia to sell over 500 million phones in 2010

Top cellphone maker Nokia will sell more than 500 million handsets this year, above market expectations, a senior company executive told India's Economic Times in an interview.                                           

"In 2010, Nokia will ship over 500 million units across three platforms, which will be about 40% of the global market share," Nokia's mobile phone unit chief Rick Simonson said in an interview.                                           

In a Reuters poll conducted in November, analysts'' average forecast was that Nokia would sell 458 million phones in 2010, and 424 million in 2009.                                           

A Nokia spokesman said Simonson's comment was not a new forecast.                                           

"Our last forecast was given on December 2," he said.                                           

On December 2 Nokia forecast 10% growth in cellphone market volumes in 2010, while its market share would remain roughly on par with 2009.                                           

Simonson's comment helped Nokia shares to rise around 3%, making it one of the top performers among European technology shares.                                           

Simonson, who was CFO until the end of October last year, also said he expected around half the mobile operating systems currently in use to survive in what is a fiercely competitive global market.                                           

"There is definitely not enough room for more than 4-5 operating systems," he was quoted as saying.                                           

Around 10 operating systems are battling for market share, and Samsung Electronics plans to launch its own software this year.                                            

"Scale is critical. For instance, Palm's OS is very good, but with less than 1% of the global volumes, it won't be too appealing to developers," he said.