LG Usurps No. 3 Spot From MotorolaLG Usurps No. 3 Spot From Motorola

With the full-year sales figures from the major handset vendors trickling in, there's been another shift in the landscape. Nokia remains the No. 1 one handset maker by a wide margin, but LG leapfrogged both Motorola and Sony Ericsson to take spot No. 3.Motorola already had slipped from the No. 2 spot to the No. 3 spot, giving it up to Samsung. According to DigiTimes, it has slipped one more notch down to the No. 4 spot.

In 2008, Nokia sold approximately 470 million mobile phones, giving it the top spot by a healthy margin. Samsung comes in second with about 200 million phones sold. LG ranks behind Samsung with 100 million handsets. It edged out Motorola by a mere 100,000 handsets. Motorola ranks fourth with 99.9 million phones sold in 2008. Sony Ericsson brings up the rear with 96.6 million handsets sold.

I haven't seen final sales figures from other manufacturers, such as RIM, Apple, Palm, and HTC to have a clear picture of who's leading the smartphone race. Smartphones from these four manufacturers are surely putting a solid dent in the sales of the top five, especially as they ramp up the availability of smartphones that are more appealing to consumers.

It's a shame that Motorola has plunged from the second spot to the No. 4 spot, but it's not surprising, considering that Motorola hasn't had a true "hit" in quite some time.