Top 100 Best selling Mobile phones in last 20 Years (Best Smartphones of all time)

By Harish

| Updated: Saturday, February 6, 2016, 11:12 [IST]

Can you survive without your mobile phone? Mobiles have become a crucial part of our daily life nowadays. Almost, everyone has a personal cell phone of their own. But, the mobile phones we see now didn't look this earlier, instead, they were something totally different, something you wouldn't even think of having around you.

In the beginning, many of the cell phone were considered to be "car phones," as they were too large and cumbersome to carry around in a pocket. However, with the advancement of technology, the history of mobile phones, transformed the huge brick-like device of 1992 to sleek and stylish smartphones that we carry with us now.

The Motorola StarTAC from 1996 was the first phone to be widely popular, then comes the Nokia 3310 in 2000, which made a record-breaking sale of 126 million units. Motorola and Nokia ruled the cell phone industry for almost a decade. Then comes the Samsung with futuristic devices selling mobile phones globally.

Apple, the Cupertino-based company, was the first one to introduce a touchscreen smartphone - the iPhone. Apple and the South Korean device maker - Samsung, started ruled the smartphone industry for almost a decade. The evolution of Android operating system helped many desi and other smartphone makers to produce a wide range of device differentiating in display size and performance.

Let's take a ride back to the past and look at how cellphones developed from the bulky look to today sleek touchscreen handsets and the units sold.

Only 2 phones launched in 1992 Year

Motorola Personal Phone, 8 million sold
Nokia 101, 5 million sold.

Year of 1996

Motorola StarTAC, 60 million sold
Nokia 1610

The Motorola StarTAC from 1996 was the first phone to be widely popular.

The Motorola StarTAC is a clamshell mobile phone manufactured by Motorola. It was released on January 3, 1996, being the first ever clamshell/flip mobile phone. The StarTAC is the successor of the MicroTAC, a semi-clamshell design that had been launched in 1989.

Year of 1998

Nokia 6120, 21 million sold
Motorola Montreal

It was the flagship phone of the brand from 1997 to 2001, is largely responsible for the popularization of Nokia in America during the late 90s, being the best selling mobile in 1998 with 21 million units.

Year of 1999 (Nokia 3210, 150 million sold)

Nokia 3210, 150 million sold

The Nokia 3210 is a GSM cellular phone, announced by Nokia on March 18, 1999. With 160 million units sold, the 3210 is one of the most popular and successful phones in history.

Year of 2000 (Nokia 3310, Nokia 8890, Siemens M30/M35i)

Nokia 3310, 126 million sold
Nokia 8890, 15 million sold
Siemens M30/M35i, 15 million sold

The Nokia 3310 from 2000 sold 126 million units.

Year of 2002 (First colour-screen phones to sell over a million in this year)

Nokia 6100, 15 million sold
Nokia 6610, 15 million sold
Nokia 3510, 15 million sold
Siemens A50, 15 million sold
Samsung SGH-T100, 12 million sold

The Nokia 6100 and 6610 (above) from 2002 were the first colour-screen phones to sell over a million.

Year of 2003 (First camera phone to sell over a million units)

Nokia 1100, 250 million sold[1]
Nokia 3100/3120, 50 million sold
Nokia 3200/3220, 30 million sold
Nokia 2100, 20 million sold
Samsung SGH-E700, 15 million sold
Nokia N-Gage, 3 million sold
Nokia 6600, 2 million sold

The Nokia 6600 from 2003 was the first camera phone to sell over a million units.

Year of 2004 (In this year there are lot of mobile got released and sold also)

Nokia 2600/2610/2626/2630, 135 million sold
Motorola RAZR V3, 130 million sold
Nokia 6010/6020/6030, 75 million sold
Nokia 6230/6233, 50 million sold
Nokia 3220, 35 million sold
Nokia 2650, 35 million sold
Nokia 2300, 15 million sold
Nokia 3120, 15 million sold
Nokia 6170, 15 million sold
Nokia 5140, 15 million sold
Nokia 7260, 15 million sold
Sony Ericsson K300, 15 million sold
Samsung SGH-D500, 12 million sold

Year of 2005 ( The Nokia N70 was the first smartphone to sell over a million)

Nokia 1110, 250 million sold
Motorola/C139/C200, 60 million sold
Nokia N70/N72/N73, 45 million sold
Nokia 6101, 35 million sold
Nokia 6060, 35 million sold
Nokia 6270/6280, 30 million sold
Nokia 6670, 19 million sold
Motorola V220, 15 million sold
Motorola V195, 15 million sold
Sony Ericsson J300, 15 million sold
Sony Ericsson K750, 15 million sold
Nokia 6680, 15 million sold
Nokia 8800, 15 million sold
Nokia 6111, 15 million sold
Nokia 2680, 15 million sold
LG Chocolate, 15 million sold
Motorola Q, 1 million sold

The Nokia N70 was the first smartphone to sell over a million.

Year of 2006 ( The Motorola Q from 2005 was the first QWERTY phone to sell over a million.)

Nokia 1600/1650/1661, 130 million sold
Nokia 6070/6080, 50 million sold
Nokia 7360/7370/7380, 45 million sold
Nokia 6300, 35 million sold
Nokia 2310, 35 million sold
Nokia 5200/5300, 30 million sold
BlackBerry Pearl 8100, 15 million sold
BenQ-Siemens S68, 15 million sold
Sony Ericsson K310, 15 million sold
Sony Ericsson W810, 15 million sold
Sony Ericsson W300, 15 million sold
Motorola PEBL U6, 15 million sold
Motorola KRZR K1, 15 million sold
Motorola SLVR L6, 15 million sold
Motorola SLVR L7, 15 million sold
Nokia 6085, 15 million sold
Nokia 6125, 15 million sold
Nokia 6131, 15 million sold
Samsung SGH-D900, 3 million sold
Nokia 3250, 1 million sold