Nokia on Fire

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) shares jumped more than 14% Thursday as the world's top mobile phone maker reported record profits and growth in the fourth quarter, selling more handsets than its three closest rivals combined.

Strong sales in emerging markets helped boost net profit 44% in the period and saw the Finnish company capture more than 40% of the global handset market — an all-time best and long-term goal.

Nokia's revenue grew 34% to $22.9 billion as Nokia sold a record 133.5 million handsets — up 27% from the same period in 2006.

Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo described the quarter as "excellent."

"Mobile phones are a necessity for a growing number of people worldwide," he told reporters. "In this sense, the market is everywhere."

Nokia's strong performance was in stark contrast to that of its rivals.

Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE: MOT) shares plunged 23% Wednesday after new CEO Greg Brown said the recovery of its ailing handset division will take longer than expected.

Nokia said its biggest growth in the period — of 52% — was in the Middle East and Africa, followed by 43% in the Asia-Pacific region and 38% in China.

In all Nokia sold 437 million handsets last year, 26% more than in 2006.

I was one of those 437 million , having recently picked up a Nokia N75. I will be providing a review soon but I can tell you that so far, I am VERY HAPPY with the device.

Double the Battery Life!

Now here is something to get excited about. For as much as I love mobile phones, I'm still frequently annoyed by the (lack of) battery life of mobile phone batteries.

We have dozens of phones at our office that we use to test mobile games and other applications and it feels like we are constantly charging the damn things. To make matters worse, all the chargers are different and inevitably, the one phone you need to show a demo is out of batteries. Argh.

So, needless to say, I was very excited to hear at CES that Angstrom Power recently completed trials of a fuel cell system that effectively doubled talk time and the overall battery life in mobile phones.

The trial involved a Motorola SLVR L7 and a fuel system that fit inside the phone without modification. The Micro Hydrogen platform uses a new fuel cell architecture, micro-fluidics and a refillable hydrogen storage tank to provide power. Angstrom believes the technology could be built into phones as early as 2010.

Stuart Robinson, Director of Handset Component Technologies at Strategy Analytics Ltd, had this to say about the results:

"Our research shows that insufficient battery run time ranks as one of the leading considerations in the adoption of handheld devices with rich multimedia functionality. Development of Lithium batteries is too slow to meet the growing energy demands of cellular handsets. Angstrom's achievement, the world's first successful integration of micro fuel cell technology into a standard mobile handset, demonstrates the potential of micro fuel cells to provide a better solution for demanding mobile energy applications."

The addressable market for Angstrom's technology is estimated to exceed a billion units annually by 2010.

I had never heard of Angstrom before. Founded in 2001, and based in Vancouver, BC, Angstrom Power raised $18 million of private equity financing led by VantagePoint Venture Partners in late 2006. There are certainly other firms competing in this space, with one local Seattle company, that I had heard of, Neah Power Systems, looking to crack the same code.

Let's hope these guys get this figured out quickly. I'm often at a loss trying to explain to some non-techie why it's possible for people to deliver TV to mobile phones but they can't figure out how to improve the battery life.

Best Selling Mobile Phones Of The Third Quarter

The Strategy Analytics ProductTRAX program released its Q3, 2007 list of top selling consumer handsets in the US market. Motorola and LG accounted for seven of the top best selling consumer handsets.

US Q3 2007, Best Selling Consumer Handsets:

Motorola RAZR V3
Motorola RAZR V3m
LG VX8300
Apple iPhone
LG Chocolate VX8550
Motorola MOTOKRZR K1m
Samsung SYNC SGH-A707
LG VX5300
Sanyo Katana II
Motorola V323i/V325i

"3G devices accounted for 55% of these top selling device volumes. That share will continue to grow during Q4," states Chris Ambrosio, a Director in the Wireless Practice at Strategy Analytics. "While the iPhone gets the headlines, the "Sync" from Samsung and the "Chocolate" from LG quietly stole the show in the category of iconic, 3G feature phones. Samsung, in particular, is well-positioned to dominate 3G sales during the critical Q4 holiday season."

I've said it before, but the continued success of the RAZR is just incredible (in July of 2006 Motorola announced they had sold 50 million units). I realize that it is now a "free" phone but for it to still be the #1 phone in the US after all this time is unbelievable.