40 years have passed for mobile phones and Nokia dominates bestsellers list

By Rich Edmonds
published

The Daily Telegraph has produced a list of bestselling mobile phones over the last 40 years. While we celebrate the 40th Birthday of the mobile phone, what's interesting to note is how Nokia dominates the list with 13 of the spots taken by hardware produced by the Finnish manufacturer. Unfortunately no Windows Phones are present, but this illustrates just how strong the Nokia brand is.

Here's the full list:

  • 20. Nokia 2850. One of the few clamshell designs from Nokia. Came out in 2004 and went on to sell 35 million.
  • 19. iPhone 3GS. Sold around 35 million.
  • 17 & 18. Samsung Galaxy SII and SIII – each of these has sold around 40 million units.
  • 16. Nokia 6230 – announced in 2003, sold 50 million, and still one of the loudest phones we’ve produced.
  • 15. Nokia 3100 – released in 2003; sold over 50 million. Pink and blue were the best.
  • 14. Motorola StarTAC – 60 million sold.
  • 13. Motorola C200 - 60 million sold.
  • 12. iPhone 4S – launched in 2011. Estimated at just over 60 million sales.
  • 11. Nokia 5130 – one of the phones to debut XpressMusic; 65 million sold.
  • 10. Nokia 6010 - selling 75 million and coming with a colour screen!
  • 9. Nokia 1208 – tough and affordable; 100 million sold.
  • 8. Nokia 1600 – Do you recall playing Soccer League on one of these? 130 million people do.
  • 7. Motorola Razr V3 – last non-Nokia on the list; sold more than 130 million.
  • 6. Nokia 2600 – very nicely designed keyboard on this one; sold 135 million.
  • 5. Nokia 3310 – the popular device sold 136 million.
  • 4. Nokia 5230 – one of the youngsters on the list; launched in 2010 and went on to sell 150 million.
  • 3. Nokia 1200 – born 2007; sold 150 million.
  • 2. Nokia 3210 – The chunky gem, selling 160 million.
  • 1. Nokia 1110 – sold an astonishing 250 million after it went on sale in 2005.

Sure, we'd like to see Windows Phones in the above chart (like the Lumia 920 - pictured above), but there's still some way to go before Nokia's now smartphones can compete for the 250 million sales position. The Nokia 3210 certainly brings back some memories. Do you remember owning one of the older mobile phones by Nokia? 

Source: Telegraph, via: Nokia Conversations

Rich Edmonds
Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.