MUNICH, Germany — With a volume of 990.8 million units worldwide, sales of mobile handsets in 2006 just fell short of a billion. According to market researcher Gartner, three top vendors gained market share at the expense of smaller companies.

The volume in terms of units sold increased 21.3 percent against 2005. During the last quarter 2006 however, growth slowed to some extend and Gartner observed an inventory build-up in the channels. The market researcher attributed this phenomenon to the preparation of the Chinese New Year as well as to some manufacturers introducing new models late in the quarter.

Nokia managed to maintain its position as the world's largest cellphone manufacturer, improving its market share from 32.5 percent in 2005 to 34.8 percent in 2006. Motorola as the number two gained significantly, expanding its market share from 17.7 percent to 21.1 percent. Also among the short list of winners was Sony Ericsson, which secured 7.4 percent of the market, compared to 6.3 percent a year earlier. Among the top six, Samsung, LG and Sagem saw their respective market share decline, despite shipping higher units.

While Motorola had gained momentum in the fist half of the year with its successful Razr models in most countries, the company fell back somewhat in the second half, Gartner reckoned.

Samsung as the number three player could raise its overall shipments by 12 percent to 116 million units. However, since the market grew even faster, the company's market share declined. With new technology roll-outs scheduled for 2007 such as WiMAX and HSDPA, Gartner expects Samsung to catch up again.

BenQ Mobile halved its market share from 4.9 percent in 2005 to 2.4 percent. It remains unclear it the insolvency of its German arm triggered the decline or if it was the other way around - in any case the company now intends to focus to Asian markets. Gartner, however, remains "highly skeptical" with respect to the future of the company.

In the fourth quarter, sales in Asia slowed down. According to Gartner, this is in line with a seasonal trend that does not favor this quarter in Asia. In contrast, Europe saw a very strong end to the year, with Western Europe expanding 7 percent compared to the last quarter of 2005 and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa 13 percent. Japan added 10.9 percent, Latin America 13.5 percent. In North America, sales also were "very strong", but Gartner did not specify a growth figure.

For 2007, Gartner expects the global growth to slow down somewhat, despite the roll-out of new technologies. In total, the market researcher believes that over the yea, the number of phones shipped could reach the 1.2 billion mark.