Worldwide mobile phone market grows 18.5 percent in 2010

The latest Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker results are in from International Data Corporation (IDC) and they show that the mobile phone market continues to grow at an impressive rate. A total of 1.39 mobile handsets were shipped in 2010, an 18.5 increase over the 1.17 billion shipped in 2009. Vendors shipped 401.4 million units in Q4 2010 alone (compared to 340.5 million units in Q4 2009).

There was some upheaval in Q4 2010 in the top worldwide manufacturers as Huawei climbed into the top five, pushing Apple down to fifth and RIM completely off the list.

“Change-up among the number four and five vendors could be a regular occurrence this year,” added Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. “Motorola, Research In Motion, and Sony Ericsson, all vendors with a tight focus on the fast-growing smartphone market and who had ranked among the top five worldwide vendors during 2010, are well within striking distance to move back into the top five list.”

For the whole of 2010, Nokia remained on top, followed by Samsung, LG Electronics, with ZTE in fourth and RIM in fifth. In the North American market, IDC reports that RIM and Apple maintained their leadership positions.

IDC expects that growth in the smartphone space will drive market growth through 2014. In 2011 alone, IDC expects smartphone shipments to grow 43.7 percent.

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