Yet again, Nokia is crowned as the world's top mobile vendor, despite increased competition from its Asian based rivals, while Apple's hand in the market has strengthened following a surge in iPhone shipments.
As such, it's no surprise that IDC believes mobile shipments as a whole rose across the quarter, topping 340 million units compared to just over 297 million units in the same quarter the previous year.
Accelerating Apple
In total, the worldwide mobile phone market grew by 14.6 percent the fourth consecutive double quarter of double digit growth.
It's an expansion that can be easily explained, in IDC senior research analyst Kevin Restivo's view, with the launch of iPhone 4 the success of which makes Apple the fourth largest mobile vendor in the world pushing the market forward as a whole.
"The entrance of Apple to the top 5 vendor ranking underscores the increased importance of smartphones to the overall market," said Restivo.
"Moreover, the mobile phone makers that are delivering popular smartphone models are among the fastest growing firms. Vendors that aren't developing a strong portfolio of smartphones will be challenged to maintain and grow market share in the future."
Numb Nokia
In all, iPhone shipments were up 90.5 percent in Q3 2010, with 14.1 million units delivered across the quarter.
That hands Apple a market share of 4.1 percent and placing it ahead of rival RIM, which shipped 12.4 million handsets for a 3.6 percent share.
Nokia, however, remains comfortably at the top of the tree, its 110.4 million units shipped a rise of just under 2 percent year-on-year - easily eclipsing its nearest rival Samsung on 71.4 million units and third place LG on 28.4 million.
Nonetheless, its share of the market has fallen since Q3 2009, its previous 36.5 percent share dropping to 32.4 percent in the last quarter.
[source: IDC]
