UPDATE 1-Korean firms boost share in shrinking handset mkt

* Samsung, LG gain share in Q4, but profits suffer

* Strategy Analytics sees market down 9 pct y/y in 2009

* H1 market to be especially weak (Releads, adds details)

HELSINKI, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and LG Electronics (066570.KS) won a larger share of a shrinking cellphone market in the fourth quarter, helped by a weak Korean won, but profits suffered as a result, data showed on Friday.

All three of the world's top cellphone makers -- Samsung, LG and the largest vendor Nokia (NOK1V.HE) -- have said they are targeting a larger share of the falling market in 2009.

Nokia has forecast the market to shrink some 10 percent, and Samsung on Friday forecast a 5-10 percent drop. Before this week's reports the average market forecast was for an 8-percent fall.

On Friday research firm Strategy Analytics (SA) said the global cellphone market would shrink 9 percent in 2009, its first decline since 2001, and with the first half set to be especially grim as economic slowdown chokes consumer spending.

"We expect the first half of 2009 to be very weak, as the industry is hit by a double whammy of slowing post-holiday shipments in developed markets and subdued demand during the normally buoyant Chinese New Year in Asia," SA analyst Neil Mawston said in a statement.

The 9 percent fall would be the first year-on-year fall since sales dipped 6 percent in 2001, the only time the market has seen a reversal since the cellphone industry began in 1983.

The economic slowdown led to the industry's weakest showing in the fourth quarter of 2008 since October-December 2001, SA said, with shipments slumping 10 percent year-on-year to 295 million units.

It was the first time SA had seen shipments in the traditionally buoyant quarter lower than the third quarter.

"Retailers de-stocked and burnt off existing inventory due to credit tightness, while consumers delayed purchases because of fears of a recession," it said.

The market leader Nokia sold 113 million phones in the fourth quarter, less than in the four previous quarters, and lost some market share to Samsung and LG.

Nokia's fourth-quarter market share slid to 38.4 percent from 40.6 percent a year ago, SA said, while Samsung's share jumped to 17.9 percent from 14.1 percent. LG's share rose to 8.7 percent from 7.2 percent.

But Samsung's and LG's gains came at a cost. LG reported on Thursday a record quarterly net loss due in part to weakness in its handset unit, while the operating margin at Samsung's handset unit sank to 2 percent in the quarter from 7 percent in the third quarter.

Former industry leader Motorola's MOT.N sharp slide continued in the quarter, with its market share plunging to 6.4 percent from 12.4 percent, making it a distant fifth globally. For a factbox on cellphone makers Q4 performance [ID:nLN323024] (Reporting by Brett Young and Tarmo Virki, editing by Dan Lalor and David Cowell)