Nokia hopes to launch six to 12 new phones customized for North American carriers in 2008, versus three in 2007, as the company aims to improve its No. 4 U.S. market share, the president of its North American business said on Wednesday.

Its biggest customers in the region are U.S. market leader AT&T and fourth-ranked T-Mobile USA, owned by Deutsche Telekom.Both run networks based on GSM, the wireless technology Nokia focuses most of its business on.

Nokia said the company would also have customized phones this year for Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc. Verizon uses a technology known as CDMA, a much smaller business for Nokia.

The global No. 2 cell phone maker, Samsung Electronics, took second place in the U.S. market in the third quarter with an 18 percent market share while LG Electronics  was third with 15 percent, according to Strategy Analytics. Sony Ericsson, owned by Sony Corp and Ericsson, also said earlier this week that boosting its position in the North American market is a key priority for 2008. It has a No. 4 ranking in the global market but a smaller share of the U.S. market.

He said cell phones had become a “vital necessity” for many people. AT&T had spooked stock markets the day before by saying it was seeing softness among U.S. consumer customers, but less in wireless than in wireline.