Android and Apple grow, Nokia and RIM slipping

The Smartphone market is a competitive arena, with many companies trying hard to grab consumer attention to maximise their sales. In 2010, Apple and Android vendors have managed to grab a greater market share thanks to the strength of their operating systems and partnership deals. Nokia and Research In Motion however haven't had such a positive experience.

Research firm IDC has found that Nokia and Blackberry maker RIM are still overall in first and second places respectively with the highest market shares and units shipped across the planet. Nokia however have watched their market share fall to 33.1 percent from 39 percent in 2009, and RIM's share has dropped from 20 percent to 16.1 percent.

Apple, who are still in third place overall have seen a rise from 14.5 percent to 15.7 percent, shipping 47.5 million phones in 2010, up from 25.1 million in 2009.

Obviously the iPhone 4 has helped drive these sales considerably, with earlier issues with the antenna system seemingly forgotten amongst the customer base. The iPhone 4 is also being adopted into the enterprise market, a stronghold for RIM's Blackberry. In the final quarter due to this business market growth, Apple have soared past RIM as the world' second leading smartphone vendor.

Google Android however is the noted success story, as Samsung and HTC have padded out the top fve list of global mobile smartphone vendors. They have delivered a staggering 23 million phones in 2010, compared against 5.5 million in 2009. Samsungs market share alone jumped from 3.2 percent to 7.6 percent, a huge level of growth. HTC growth has risen from 4.7 percent to 7.1 percent thanks to 21.5 million units sold in 2010, compared to 8.1 million in 2009.

Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC said “Android continues to gain by leaps and bounds, helping to drive the smartphone market, It has become the cornerstone of multiple vendors' smartphone strategies, and has quickly become a challenger to market leader Symbian. Although Symbian has the backing of market leader Nokia, Android has multiple vendors, including HTC, LG Electronics, Motorola, Samsung and a growing list of companies deploying Android on their devices.”

KitGuru says: 302.6 million smartphones were shipped in 2010. An increase from 173.5 million in 2009. Can this growth continue?

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