Apple jumped past Research in Motion and Sony Ericsson during the third quarter to become the world's fourth largest mobile-phone maker for the first time, according to data from the companies.
The iPhone grabbed a 4.3 percent share of the global mobile-phone market during the three months from July to September on shipments of 14.1 million handsets. Compared to the same period of 2009, the figure represents an almost doubling of shipments by Apple.
Nokia remained the overall leader with shipments of 110.4 million units and Samsung claimed second place with shipments of 71.4 million units. LG Electronics was third with shipments of 28.4 million units.
"LG lost ground due to a weak smartphone portfolio, while Nokia suffered component shortages that constrained its low-end handset volumes by an estimated several million units," said Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics, in a statement. The company said the gap between Nokia and Samsung was the closest it has ever been in the third quarter.
BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion was pushed down a notch to fifth place by Apple's strong showing. RIM shipped 12.4 million handsets during the period.
The global mobile phone market totalled 327 million units during the third quarter, according to an estimate by Strategy Analytics.
During a recent conference call with analysts, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said he doesn't see RIM jumping past Apple in the coming quarters.
"We've now passed RIM. And I don't see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future," said Jobs. They must move beyond their area of strength and comfort, into the unfamiliar territory of trying to become a software platform company.
Apple was buoyed by the launch of the iPhone 4, which launched in the UK, US, France, Germany and Japan a week before the quarter began. During the three months it was rolled out through much of the world, finally hitting China at the end of the quarter on Sept. 25.
The company's previous mobile phone, the iPhone 3GS, is still on sale and helping Apple's shipment numbers.
RIM's position in the top five is in danger from a handful of companies, said Strategy Analytics. There are a large number of second tier players within touching distance of the ranking, including Sony Ericsson, which was in the top five until recently, ZTE, Motorola, Huawei and Alcatel.
Comments
Hodgins said: The iPhone has a more dominant position in the teens community due to its gorgeous appearance and capacity of handling mulit-tasks But in the business community especially among the people who are in the top of the pyrmid it has to relinquish the drivers seat since the people are not that interested in the looks and the phone itself fails to provide the exceptional typing experience which available on its rivals such as Nokia and Blackberrry as a result of the absence of keyboard Security and stability are another factors negatively affecting iPhones sales records And the phone itself is quite tricky to master if you never used an Apples product so beginner probably would have a hard time of adjusting and have to look for some gudiance in terms of using and maintaining the phone at some websites like iFunia