Global shipments of mobile phones bounced back in the fourth quarter of last year, pulling the market out of what was expected to be a dismal year, a market research firm said Friday.

Manufacturers shipped 336.5 million handsets in the quarter, an increase of 15.1% over the third quarter, ABI Research said. Competition, however, squeezed average selling prices, which fell 2% to $117.55.

Government stimulus packages helped save the industry by renewing consumer confidence in the second half of the year, ABI said. As a result, shipments for the full year shrank only 4.5% to 1.15 billion units, much better than the dire predictions early in the year.

"2009 may have started with a whimper but by 4Q-2009 the global mobile handset market ended with a pretty reasonable bang," ABI analyst Jake Saunders said in a statement. ABI forecasts shipments this year to rise to 1.2 billion handsets.

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— Antone Gonsalves, InformationWeek