For a while now, Nokia has been the number one handset manufacturer in the world. They're only fourth in the U.S., so you wouldn't know it from walking into a cell phone store.

But things have only gotten better for the company: CNET News reports that on Thursday Nokia announced that it had sold a record 133.5 million mobile phones during the fourth quarter of 2007. This figure was "up by more than a quarter from the same period a year earlier, boosting its overall market share to 40 percent."

But the real key to Nokia's success, the article suggests, is the way Nokia targets emerging markets such as the Middle East, Africa, China, and the Asia-Pacific region. Sales in those markets were up anywhere from a quarter to 52 percent, whereas sales in North America actually declined by a quarter in the same period. Plus, Nokia seems to be making money in these markets, boosting its overall profit by 44 percent, the article said.

Nokia's success tied to emerging markets [CNET News]