Global converged mobile device (smartphone) market grew 39% to a total of 54.5 million unit shipments in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to 39.2 million units in the same quarter a year ago, according to IDC.
According to IDC, Nokia gained the top spot with a market share of 38.2%. The company shipped 20.8 million units, an increase of 37.7% compared to 15.1 million units in the same period last year. Research In Motion stood at the second place with 10.7 million units shipments, accounting for a market share of 19.6%.
Apple iPhone shipments nearly doubled from the same quarter a year ago. Apple recorded highest growth of 97.7% year over year, with shipments reaching 8.7 million from 4.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. It gained the third spot with a market share of 16%. Motorola was the fourth best vendor for the quarter with 2.5 million units shipped, followed by HTC which shipped 2.4 million units.
For the full year 2009, vendors shipped a total of 174.2 million units in 2009, up 15.1% from the 151.4 million units in 2008. Converged mobile devices accounted for 15.4% of all mobile phones shipped in 2009, up slightly from 12.7% in 2008.
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IDC said that that the continuing demand will drive the worldwide converged mobile device market to a new shipment record in 2010, with additional impetus from the shifting landscape of mobile operating systems.
Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Tracker, said: 2009 was the coming-out party for Google’s Android and Palm’s webOS as both operating systems revealed new ways to surround the users with increased functionality. More advances are in store for 2010 as Symbian and Windows are expected to unveil new versions of their respective operating systems.
“These and other operating systems will compete with attention-grabbing intuitiveness and seamlessness, a thriving mobile application library, and a compelling user experience that tightly holds on to the user. In the end, users will benefit from not only greater usability, but greater personalisation and customisation as well.
