One in every five is a fake phone but not all from China: Nokia

A senior Nokia executive has come forward to proclaim that one in every five mobile phones sold in this world is counterfeit.

But contrary to popular opinion, not all fakes come from China.

"It is mostly China-originated, but it is global," Esko Aho, Nokia's executive vice president for corporate relations and responsibility, told Reuters."It is not only in Asia, but also in Latin America and even in some parts of Europe."

Research firm Gartner said 145 million knock-off phones were sold globally in 2009.

In March last year, Nokia, the world’s largest phone manufacturer by volume, revised its 2009 global market share to 34% from an initial 38% to account for the counterfeit phone market. The Finnish company said it had new measurement tools in place to better estimate the number of handsets being sold by players who were “vendors of legitimate, as well as unlicensed and counterfeit, products with manufacturing facilities primarily centered around certain locations in Asia and other emerging markets.”

According to ABI Research, the world’s top ten handset makers accounted for 81% of total shipment volume Q3 last year, but certain no-brand manufacturers also produce phones along with knock-offs of popular models.

Despite the worrying figures, ABI’s research analyst Bhavya Khanna said in 2009 that counterfeit manufacturers did not pose a significant threat to big players in the burgeoning India market.