Smartphone makers sold 12.8 percent more units in the third quarter as overall global mobile-phone sales increased 0.1 percent, researcher Gartner Inc said.
Apple Inc enlarged its share of smartphones to 17.1 percent from 12.9 percent a year earlier as it expanded in Europe, Gartner said yesterday in a statement.
Research in Motion Ltd. grew to 20.8 percent, while Nokia Oyj slipped to a 39.3 percent share in smartphones.
“Smartphones continued to represent the fastest-growing segment of the mobile devices market and we remain confident about their potential in the fourth quarter and in 2010,” Carolina Milanesi, a research director at the market-research company, said in the statement.
Nokia’s share of the overall handset market declined to 36.7 percent in the quarter from 38.2 percent a year earlier.
Samsung Electronics Co rose to 19.6 percent while LG Electronics Inc advanced to 10.3 percent, based on the Gartner numbers, which track sales to end users.
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd slipped to fifth place behind Motorola Inc, which is introducing a new phone using Google Inc’s Android system.
Full-year phone shipments will be flat, the researcher said, upgrading its previous forecast of a 4 percent fall. Fourth-quarter sales will increase year on year as new models appear in time for Christmas spending and carriers issue incentive programs, Milanesi said.
RSS