Predictions of a global economic slowdown have prompted Gartner to suggest that the smart money will be going into mobile phones.

Global sales of mobile phones grew around 16 per cent last year, pushed by demand for feature-rich devices in developed markets and people buying their first handsets in the developing world.

"After another strong year, we expect the growth in sales of mobile devices to decelerate in 2008 and fall to about 10 per cent growth as mature markets become more saturated," said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner.

"However, the global mobile devices market will remain relatively immune to a recession in the US and western Europe as the majority of growth in 2008 will come from emerging markets."

Gartner said that developing markets now account for 70 per cent of global mobile sales.

In terms of market share Nokia increased its dominance to over 37 per cent of the total, rising to 40 per cent in the last quarter of 2007.

Number-two player Motorola was the big loser, dropping nearly five points to 14.1 per cent and to barely 10 per cent in the fourth quarter.