Apple Enters Top 5 Phone Ranks for 1st Time

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Apple glided past BlackBerry maker RIM and Sony Ericsson during Q3 landing in 4th place in worldwide cellphone sales.

According to IDC, Apple took a 4.1 percent share of the cellphone market with shipments of 14.1 million units (almost double what it shipped last year).

Since Apple sells only smartphones, its infiltration of the top 5 cellphone registry underscores the growing importance of smartphones—a category which will grow by 55 percent this year worldwide, says IDC.

Nokia ranked first with about 110.4 million units, but its market share fell 4.1 percent from last year to 32.4 percent. “Nokia’s grip on the traditional mobile phone market has been somewhat loosened,” said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas.

Samsung and LG were ranked 2nd and 3rd with Samsung’s market share increasing by a hair to 21 percent and LG’s share declining by 10 percent to 8.3 percent. RIM was 5th with shipments of 12.4 million and a market share of 3.6 percent, up by over 3 percent.

“LG lost ground due to a weak smartphone portfolio, while Nokia suffered component shortages,” added Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics.

RIM’s position in the top 5 is in danger from a handful of companies, said Strategy Analytics. These include Sony Ericsson, ZTE, Motorola, Huawei and Alcatel.

The global cell phone market totalled 340.5 million units in shipments and grew 14.6 percent over last year, said IDC.

Source: IDC and PC World via Yahoo!

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