While worldwide mobile phone sales only grew 0.1 percent to 308.9 million units from the same quarter a year ago, smartphone sales roles 12.8 percent to top 41 million units. According to Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner,
“Smartphones continued to represent the fastest-growing segment of the mobile-devices market and we remain confident about the potential for smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2009 and in 2010.”
Nokia maintained its first position (16.1 million units shipped) but saw its overall smartphone market share drop below 40 percent. Research In Motion holds second place (8.5 million) and a 20.8 percent market share, Apple is now in third with 7 million shipments (17.1 percent market share), HTC is in fourth (2.6 million units and a 6.5 percent market share) and Samsung holds down the fifth spot with 1.3 million smartphones shipped and a 3.2 percent market share.
In term of mobile operating systems, Symbian, RIM’s BlackBerry OS and Apple’s iPhone OS dominate. Windows-based smartphones recorded a decline while Android climbed modestly to a 3.5 percent market share.