Smartphone market continues to grow despite recession

Smartphone shipments increased by 4.2% in Q3 despite the worldwide recession, according to the latest figures published by market research company IDC. Nokia maintained its lead with a 37.9% share of the global market, followed by RIM with 19% and third was Apple with 17.1%.

Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team said: "As users expect greater functionality from their devices beyond telephony, we believe the [smartphone] market will continue to grow faster than the overall mobile phone market."

In total, 43.3 million smartphones were sold worldwide, up from 41.5 million in the same quarter a year ago. Breaking it down, Nokia shipped 16.4 million units, largely due to sales of its popular N97 model, RIM 8.2 and Apple shifted 7.4 million.

RIM enjoyed the largest year-on-year growth of 35.7%, while Nokia and Apple experienced more modest growth rates of 6.6% and 7.1% respectively. Although RIM’s (the maker of BlackBerry) volumes remained within its home region of North America, the company also posted significant improvement internationally, with some regions recording triple digit growth year over year. RIM shipped several new BlackBerry devices during the quarter.

Apple had its most successful quarter to date: “The nearly global availability of the iPhone 3G S sparked another round of annual replacements for Apple loyalists, while the lower price on the iPhone 3G put the device well within reach of customers wary of the price,” said IDC.

The two other top five players, HTC and Samsung sold 2.4 and 1.5 million units respectively.