The huge total was 42 per cent up on the year and pushed overall phone sales for 2007 to more than 161 million and confirmed the South Korean company, it claims, as the world’s second biggest handset vendor after Nokia. It expects to sell 200 million handsets in 2008.

Samsung has benefited from Motorola’s sluggish recent performance and from a strong showing in the US, where Nokia is not the force it is elsewhere. Its most successful models have been the sleek Ultra range. Earlier this month Samsung revealed a range of touchscreen devices, which will ship out later this quarter.