The smartphone market is continuing to grow regardless of the current economic climate.
That is the conclusion of analyst firm IDC, which has reported shipments of smartphone handsets rising by 3.2 per cent in the last quarter to 43.3 million. This is also a 4.2 per cent increase compared to the same quarter last year.
Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team, said in a statement: "Demand for converged mobile devices [smartphones] has remained strong all year. These devices provide more utility and entertainment than traditional mobile phones."
Llamas doesn't believe this quarter is a fluke either and expects the trend to continue to improve.
"As users expect greater functionality from their devices beyond telephony, we believe the converged mobile device market to grow faster than the overall mobile phone market," he said.
When it came to vendors, Nokia was still leading the market although sales were struggling in the US. BlackBerry on the other hand has continued to improve its sales in North America and is growing across the global market better than before.
Apple, HTC and Samsung completed the top five performers in the third quarter of 2009, with Samsung re-entering the top echelons thanks to its commitment to the new Windows Phone operating system.
