Nokia loosens smartphone stranglehold

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 11 Mar 2009 at 11:33

Apple and RIM are continuing to take chunks out of Nokia's smartphone dominance, a new study reveals.

According to figures released by Gartner, Nokia's share of the smartphone market fell from 50.9% to 40.8% in the fourth quarter, with its overall sales of smartphones declining 17% to 15.6 million units.

The biggest beneficiary of this fall was RIM, which increased its market share to 19.5% from 10.9%, as its sales grew 85% to 7.4 million units.

Apple was also a happy bunny. Sales of the iPhone doubled in the fourth quarter bolstering its market share from 5.2% to 10.7%.

The figures reveal that global sales of smartphones for 2008 reached 139.3 million devices, up 13.9% compared with 2007.

It's doubtful any of this will trouble Nokia too much though. Overall sales of smartphones accounted for only 12% of all mobile device sales for the quarter.