IDC: Samsung and Apple still kings of the smartphone market, Nokia loses top five spot to RIM

IDC's third quarter figures are in, complete with a few unexpected shake-ups. The entire cellphone market grew 2.4% over the same time last year, but smartphones shipments drove the majority of that, showing growth of 45.3% and beating the analysts' expectations. Of the 179.7 million smartphones shipped, Samsung and Apple devices accounted for almost half of them, with the companies retaining their number one and two positions in the market, respectively. IDC notes that iPhone shipments didn't increase, but this is somewhat expected given the latest iteration was released a short time before the end of the quarter. What we find particularly interesting is that Nokia was ousted out of the top five smartphone players and replaced by RIM. Whether Nokia's upcoming Windows 8 Phone devices will put it back in contention remains to be seen, as does the effect BB10 and RIM's new handsets have on the market. ZTE finished fourth in the list thanks to increased sales in North America, with HTC rounding up the top five vendors thanks to continued uptake of its power devices. With a bunch of new handsets coming to the table and the holiday season fast approaching, we may have even more surprises in the fourth quarter numbers, due early next year.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, RIM

IDC: Samsung and Apple still kings of the smartphone market, Nokia loses top five spot to RIM originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Oct 2012 03:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.