The Finnish company said it expects mobile phone users to triple to 1 billion worldwide by the end of 2002, a year sooner than in a previous projection.
Nokia and its rivals Motorola and Ericsson are benefiting from demand for wireless communication, and growth may accelerate with the advent of phones that send email and access the Internet. Nokia is ahead in that race and its market share will grow, analysts said.
"Even Nokia, which is usually one of the most aggressive forecasters, has underestimated the market," said Anders Jarheim, who helps oversee about $2 billion in stocks at Oehman Fondkommission. "Telecommunications is the right industry and Nokia is the right company."
In afternoon trading, Nokia stock rose 9.69 or 6.7 percent to 154.31, just under record levels of 155.5. More than 3.7 million shares traded hands.
"We believe it will be possible to reach net sales growth of 30 to 40 percent in 2000, which would exceed our long-term target of 25 to 35 percent," Nokia chief executive Jorma Ollila said in a statement from an analyst meeting in Irving, Texas.
The company will make almost 68 million phones this year and has overtaken competitors by adding functions and large displays on small handsets. At the end of last year, Nokia had 23 percent of the market, compared with Motorola's 20 percent and Ericsson's 15 percent, according to Dataquest, a market-research company.
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