Consumers are looking to buy phones with cameras and music players

Pre-tax profit was 151m euros (�104m; $184m) for the January to March period, up from 70m euros a year ago. Analysts had expected a figure closer to 130m.

Sales were 1.99bn euros from 1.29bn a year earlier, driven by Walkman phones, as well as top- and bottom-end models.

The company also managed to sell its phones at a higher average price.

'Strong growth'

"Growth in the global handset market continued to outpace earlier expectations," the company said, adding that it now expected global sales to top 900 million units this year, compared with 780 million in 2005.

The firm, owned by Sweden's Ericsson and Japan's Sony, said that it shipped a total of 13.3 million handsets in the quarter, up 41% from the same period a year earlier.

While it was an improvement in terms of annual growth, handset sales were down 17% from the previous quarter.

The average selling price, meanwhile, gained 9.3% to 149.8 euros from a year earlier and was 4.8% higher than in the fourth quarter.