A new first-quarter industry report released by Gartner Research has this week revealed that, while worldwide mobile phone sales across Q1 have fallen, the recession-defying attraction of upper-tier mobile handsets such as Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry devices has resulted in growth for the smartphone sector.
The popularity of smartphones is clear for all to see. Image: jagermo/Flickr.
More pointedly, Q1 sales of smartphones increased by some 12.7 percent year-on-year when measured against the first three months of 2008, with Cupertino-based Apple Inc. notching up 3.9 million shipped units of its touch-screen iPhone 3G, doubling its market share to 10.8 percent.
Although Apple led the first-quarter smartphone surge, Nokia Corp., the world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturer, maintained its dominance in the sector thanks to 41.2 percent of the market share.
However, it’s worth noting that Nokia’s share was 45.1 percent at the close of 2008 and its position continues to dwindle against the popularity of the trend-setting iPhone and BlackBerry devices.
Ontario-based manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM), which creates the versatile BlackBerry line, posted almost 20 percent of all smartphone sales across Q1 of 2009, according to Gartner’s performance numbers.
Sustained smartphone appeal aside, the general mobile phone market managed to notch up some 269 million handset sales during the first quarter, which is a year-on-year decline of 9.4 percent and a 14.5 percent drop when compared to the fourth quarter of 2008.
As with the smartphone sector, Nokia leads the overall manufacturing pack with 38 percent of the market (for a three percent year-on-year loss), while Samsung added almost five percent to its share and secured 19.1 percent for second place. LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson round out the top five performers.
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