Canada’s Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the Blackberry, replaced Motorola as one of the world’s top five mobile phone manufacturers in the first quarter of this year, industry tracker IDC said on Friday.
RIM appeared on the list of top five vendors for the first time on the basis of worldwide sales of 10.6 million units in the first three months of the year, placing it in a tie for fourth spot with Sony Ericsson, IDC said.
Motorola, which had been in the top five since 2004, got yet more bad news on Thursday when the US handset maker was also supplanted by Apple as the leading US manufacturer of mobile devices.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Apple last week reported iPhone sales of 8.75 million units in the first three months of the year, while Motorola on Thursday said it sold 8.5 million units in the corresponding period.
Finland’s Nokia remained in the top spot on the IDC list of leading mobile phone makers with first-quarter sales of 107.8 million units and a market share of 36.6 percent, down from 38.4 percent a year ago.
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics was next with sales of 64.3 million.
Samsung increased its market share to 21.8 percent from 18.9 percent a year ago.
Another South Korean company, LG Electronics, was third with sales of 27.1 million.
Its market share slipped 0.1 percent to 9.2 percent.
RIM’s sales of 10.6 million units gave it a market share of 3.6 percent, up from 3 percent a year ago.
Sony Ericsson sold 10.5 million units, but saw its market share slip from 6 percent a year ago to 3.6 percent.
Other handset makers accounted for total sales of 74.6 million units in the quarter, IDC said.
Overall, mobile phone sales rose 21.7 percent in the first quarter to 294.9 million units, fuelled by growth in demand for smartphones and the global economic recovery.
“The entrance of RIM into the top five underscores the sustained smartphone growth trend that is driving the global mobile phone market recovery,” IDC senior research analyst Kevin Restivo said in a statement. “This is also the first time a vendor has dropped out of the top five since the second quarter of 2005, when Sony Ericsson grabbed the No. 5 spot from BenQ Siemens.”
IDC forecast growth of 11 percent in mobile phone sales this year.
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