Nokia enjoyed a particularly successful Christmas, according to the Carphone Warehouse, Europe's largest mobile phone retailer. This is despite difficult market conditions and the emergence of a number of strong rivals, and highlights that we may be seeing the end of the recession. Read on after the jump to find out more...

At the start of the recession, the Carphone Warehouse was selling a much bigger number of SIM-only deals, as people were trying to cut back on spending money. This Christmas saw a big change, however, with Nokia coming out on top. Devices such as the Nokia N900 have proved more popular than handsets from other manufacturers, with the Carphone Warehouse claiming that Nokia was “back with a vengeance”.

Where regular handsets have often proved to be Nokia's big money-maker, last year smartphones proved to be a lot more popular, with a surge in demand for both pre-pay and contract deals on devices such as the Nokia N900 and Nokia N97 Mini.

It's not all good news though, as according to the Economic Times there may still be a difficult year ahead, with taxes set to rise and high unemployment levels. If Christmas is anything to go by, however, things are looking rosy for Nokia.