Apple storms to second place in smartphone sales

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 7 Nov 2008 at 10:23

Apple has become the world's second largest supplier of smartphones, after sales of the iPhone 3G surged in the third quarter.

Apple sold 6.9 million handsets in the quarter, according to figures from analysis firm Canalys. This strong showing helped it take 17.3% of the market propelling it ahead of RIM to second place in the market.

Nokia remains comfortably the largest vendor, holding 38.9% of the market, a 12.5% decrease compared to last year. Canalys puts the slip down to the company's transition away from older models.

However, Canalys claims it's "quite feasible" RIM will snatch second place back from Apple over Christmas, with new models including the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm likely to prove popular.

A total of 39.9 million smartphones were shipped in the third quarter, rising 28% from a year prior.

Canalys also sorted the market out by operating system revealing Symbian to be king, due to its association with Nokia. Apple and RIM held second and third place, while Microsoft took fourth place with its Windows Mobile platform.

Despite its fourth place ranking, Microsoft increased the number of Windows Mobile handsets shipped by 42%.