Apple sold more handsets in the third quarter than Research In Motion, making it the fourth-largest phone seller in the world and marking the first time that Apple has entered the list of top five handset sellers. That new dynamic was painted by new surveys from IDC and Strategy Analytics.
According to IDC, Apple sold 14.1 million handsets, compared to RIM’s 12.4 million. LG Electronics was in third place with 28.4 million units, Samsung took second with 71.4 million, and Nokia remained on top at 110.4 million.
Nokia Also Slipping
The IDC report noted that Apple’s entrance into the top five “underscores the importance of smartphones to the overall market.” It added that phone makers who aren’t developing a strong portfolio of smartphones “will be challenged to grow and retain market share,” because the device “is becoming the focal point of the personal-communications experience.”
In addition to RIM, the IDC survey shows that Nokia, the world’s largest handset maker for the last dozen years, is also slipping. The Finnish company dropped to 32.4 percent of the market from its prior-year performance of 36.5 percent. Samsung increased slightly to 21 percent from 20.3 percent, while LG dropped two points to 8.3 percent.
Nokia’s position in a regional market such as Asian Pacific, not including Japan, has been chipped away by new brands, including Micromax, Nexian, Huawei, ZTE, i-Mobile and Android-based smartphones. In Japan, the key market drivers were Japanese vendors Sharp, Panasonic, Fujitsu and NEC.
In Western Europe, growth was driven by Apple’s iPhone 4 and Android devices from HTC and Samsung. In the U.S., smartphones are in the driver’s seat, with a stream of attention-grabbing devices, including the iPhone 4, RIM’s BlackBerry Torch 9800, the HTC EVO 4G, and the Droid X and Droid 2 from Motorola. Traditional mobile phones, although continuing to offer more smartphone-like…