More than 285 million mobile phones were sold in the third quarter this year while Apple sold just 1.4 million. That’s an impressive opening number for Apple, however, mobile handset manufacturers, while not panicking, are keeping a close eye on Apple, according to the BBC News on Wednesday.

Jonathan Arber, a principal analyst at Ovum, characterized the feeling amongst the market leaders, Nokia, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, HTC and Motorola. "There’s no sign of panic from competitors," he said. "There’s no scrambling. But anyone who is trying to take market share concerns them."

While Apple is known for its product marketing, other companies aren’t standing idle. Last week Samsung unveiled a new phone in the impressive British Museum in London. Journalists from 35 countries were flown in, placed in five-star hotels, and invited to the gala, all at Samsung’s expense.

One reporter asked Samsung, in not unexpected fashion, what Samsung was going to do to match the user interface of the Apple iPhone. "We’re actively working on new user interfaces and you can expect to see something special in 2008," said one of the Samsung executives.

Nokia seems particularly pleased with its 3G N95 which includes GPS navigation. Nokia holds 40 percent of the mobile phone market globally. They sell well over one million phones per day.

Mr. Arber felt that Apple’s iPhone launch would do more to excite European customers for holiday shopping, but wouldn’t change the tide. "There will be a lot of buzz around the iPhone and it may have a halo effect on other devices. It might well raise consumer awareness of a new top end of mobile handsets out there that have good internet and data communication capabilities," he said.

"Obviously some people may go looking for the iPhone but may be put off by the price and I think Apple’s various competitors in the market will be positioning themselves to take advantage of that."

One thing that does concern the iPhone competitors is the iPhone integration with the desktop and iTunes. Al Russel, the head of Vodafone’s Internet and content services, noted that while the iPhone has been a significant development, he feels that his newly launched MusicStation can’t be matched, and said, "This generation does not want an archive of music. We offer unlimited music on a rental model -- no one has done this in the marketplace, and certainly not the iPhone. We know our customer base have tremendous appetite for new music and sharing."

Darren Waters for the BBC noted that analysts and commentators will all be watching closely to see if the level of iPhone hysteria seen in the US will be matched in the UK. iPO notes that cultural and business conditions in Europe are very different than in the U.S. and how well Apple takes that into account could mean the difference between merely adequate or phenomenal iPhone sales.