According to the new figures released by the research firm Strategy Analytics, some 9 million 3G handsets were shipped globally during the second quarter of 2005 with Nokia claiming the top position on the vendor list for the first time.

According to the report, Nokia captured 17 per cent of the 3G handset market during the three months from April to June. Nokia’s 17 percent share of the 3G market is almost half of its global overall share in the global mobile market, which stands at 33 per cent, according to Chris Ambrosio, director of the Strategy Analytics wireless device strategies service.

“WCDMA (3G) technology, which accounted for just 5 per cent of total handset sales during Q2 2005, remains a market in the early stages of development, but it is worrying for a cluster of aspiring Asian vendors that Nokia has already become best in class”, said Ambrosio.

NTT DoCoMo Japan have developed a new 3G FOMA handsets, SA700iS. The model is made by Sanyo.

SA700iS is the first FOMA handset with GPS capability. Navigation functions can be started at a single touch of the dedicated button, and there is a link to i-area to make searching for locations even easier. Users can also print images directly from the handset by simply connecting the phone to a printer with the FOMA USB cable.

The SA700iS also comes with two built-in digital cameras. The internal one with 100,000 pixels and the external one with 1.3 megapixels. The main display is a QVGA TFT (2.2″, 240×320 pixels), while the secondary display is an OLED display (0.9″, 96×64 pixels). The handset accepts miniSD cards for memory expansion.

Tags: GPS, FOMA, NTT DoCoMo