"Almost all the smartphones we sell nowadays are Apple and Android - Nokia phones just don’t sell".

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Demand for Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android smartphones is surging in the Nordic region, according to Fredrik Rudberg, managing director at Swedish handset distributor Mobile 20:20.

At the same time Nokia has taken a back seat in the Nordic smart phone market. The booming sale of smartphones came at the expense of less startling Nokia models, he told the Finnish daily newspaper Kauppalehti that. Nokia’s N8 smartphone, however, sold well immediately after launch.

"Almost all the smartphones we sell nowadays are Apple and Android - Nokia phones just don’t sell," Fredrik Rudberg said. "The N8 sold very well right after the launch in Sweden and Norway, but Nokia does not have other smart phones in the highest price range".

Sweden’s Ericsson, the world’s largest maker of wireless networks, posted forecast-beating sales on the back of strong demand for mobile broadband equipment to support booming use of smartphones like Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy.

The percentage of Swedes having mobile broadband connections at home has increased sharply over the last two years, the statistics office said two weeks ago. In 2008 every tenth person had access to mobile broadband in the home, while in 2010 more than every fourth person had access.

Apple had a 14 percent volume market share of handsets in Sweden last year while Android has about one quarter of the market.

"In Finland, Apple's market share is lower than in Sweden, but it's increasing," Fredrik Rudberg said.

Nokia will post fourth quarter earnings Thursday.