Worldwide smartphone vendors shipped 100.9m units in the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of 87.2% compared to 53.9m units shipped during the same period last year, according to IDC’s worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker.
According to the report, the top five mobile device vendors were Nokia, Apple, Research In Motion (RIM), Samsung and HTC.
Nokia reported shipments of 28.3m for the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of 36.1% compared to 20.8m for the same period last year.
Apple shipments increased by 86.2% to 16.2m for the fourth quarter of 2010, compared to 8.7m shipped during the same quarter last year.
RIM shipments increased by 36.4% to 14.6m from 10.7m for fourth quarter of 2009, and Samsung reported a shipments of 9.7m for the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of 438.9% compared to 1.8m for the same period last year.
HTC reported total shipments of 8.6m for the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of 258.3% compared to 2.4m for the same period last year.
IDC mobile devices technology and trends team senior research analyst Ramon Llamas said Android continues to gain by leaps and bounds, helping to drive the smartphone market and it has become the cornerstone of multiple vendors’ smartphone strategies, and has become a challenger to market leader Symbian.
"Although Symbian has the backing of market leader Nokia, Android has multiple vendors, including HTC, LG Electronics, Motorola, Samsung and a growing list of companies deploying Android on their devices," Llamas said.
