The world's number one and number three mobile phone producers, Nokia and Ericsson, yesterday reported mirror-image first quarters, with Nokia's profit doubling while Ericsson's halved. As consumers become more conscious of mobile phone style, Nokia's trend towards models designed to look more like personal accessories than business tools has been a key factor in putting it ahead of Ericsson, analysts said.

Nokia's pre-tax profit rose a higher-than-expected 96 per cent to €758 million (£597 million) on its stellar handset performance while Ericsson's fell 51 per cent to 1.30 billion Swedish krone ($155 million), which was below the consensus.

Ericsson has not yet been able to match Nokia's models launched last year and saw first-quarter net sales of consumer products fall 12 per cent year-on-year, while Nokia's first-quarter mobile phone sales surged 92 per cent year-on-year.