After Sony Ericsson lowered its outlook for the first quarter of 2008, Nokia followed suit by acknowledging the slowdown in the global mobile phone handset market. According to a financial document filed with the SEC in the US yesterday, the world’s number one mobile phone manufacturer noted that the year-on-year growth in mobile phone shipments have dropped from 31 percent in 2006 to 25.8 percent in 2007.

The company also estimates that the market volume growth in the EMEA and Americas is slowing. For instance, the market volume growth in Europe has slowed from 16 percent in 2006 to just 3 percent in 2007. Even more drastic is the slowdown in Middle East and Africa where the growth has slowed down from 68 percent to just 19 percent during the same period.

However, China and Asia Pacific regions witnessed market volumes growth during the same period. According to Nokia, China’s mobile phone market volume showed a growth of 34 percent in 2007 as opposed to 29 percent in 2006. Markets in the Asia Pacific region also showed a growth of 34 percent in 2007 against 27 percent in 2006.

The document reveals that the emerging markets accounted for nearly 60 percent of market volumes in 2007 as opposed to 55 percent in 2006. What’s more, devices priced at under Euro 50 accounted for over 35 percent of the entire industry shipments in 2007 or in other words, close to 400 million units. Nokia claims it has a global market share of over 50 percent in this segment.