Nokia has been looking into the crystal ball for 2010 and forecast that it will gain 40 per cent of the global mobile phone market this year. This would suggest that Nokia has set itself the task of selling some 500 million handsets this year. Find out how this is likely to happen after the jump...

The mobile phone market is expecting to see a 10 per cent growth this year, according to analyst figures. This would take Nokia handset sales up from 425 million to 500 million units, which would indeed give them 40 per cent of the handset market.

According to a story over on 3g, it seems that Nokia is setting its sights on selling 500 million mobile devices this year. Nokia has already suggested that smartphones may not be the main area of growth this year, but with devices across the Symbian S40, Symbian S60 and now Maemo platforms, that's without mentioning the newly launched Nokia Booklet 3G, it's easy to see that Nokia has a product for every type of user.

It's expected that a great deal of this growth will come with more affordable handsets, either in the form of the entry-level smartphone like the Nokia 5230, or basic handset for the emerging market. After all, which other handset manufacturer has the ability to offer handsets like the Nokia 6316s, Nokia 3806 and Nokia 1506 for as little as 20 Euros?

In many respects, we expect that the main focus will be on new handsets, especially given that Nokia has already laid down plans for how the OS will look and respond. We can expect to see new handsets announced in the next few months, maybe even as soon as 3GSM in February?

What do you think, will Nokia hit the 500 million handset mark this year? Let us know what you think in the Comments below.

Via: 3g