Nokia and RIM lose out as Apple’s market share rises

The smartphone market is on the rise but big players seem to be losing their share to one model of phone.

Apple now has a 17 per cent market share in smartphone sales for the third quarter of 2009, the best it has ever achieved thanks to its roll out of the iPhone 3GS, according to analysts at Gartner.

However, Nokia has fallen to its lowest market share ever of 39 per cent down six per cent since the last quarter.

BlackBerry manufacturers Research In Motion (RIM) did reach 20 per cent market share, which was its best result so far, but Apple is definitely hot on its heels.

Overall smartphone sales increased by 13 per cent this quarter when compared to the third quarter of 2008 equating to 41 million units. These sales propped up the overall mobile market which rose by just 0.1 per cent to ship 308.9 million units.

Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, said in a statement: "Mobile phone vendors must invest in their smartphone portfolios to benefit from the fastest-growing segment of the market and that which is most resistant to low average selling prices (ASPs)."

"They should also focus on winning developers and carrier support which will both attract users."

Milanesi concluded that she was confident about the potential for smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 2010.

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.