Research published by Gartner showed that while global mobile phone handsets were almost the same as for the same quarter in 2008, smartphone sales were up by 13 per cent to 41 million for the three months ending September 30.
The period covered ended before a number of big handset launches in time for Christmas, including the Motorola Droid and Nokia's N900.
Apple still trails well behind market leader Nokia, with 39.3 per cent of the global market, but this figure was down on last year, when he had a 42.3 per cent share. By contrast, the second largest manufacturer, BlackBerry, increase its share of the market by almost five percentage points to 20.8%.
Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, said: "Many devices will reach the market in time for Christmas, and mobile carriers will run incentives for consumers during the holidays. We expect sales of mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2009 to show year-over-year growth."
The launch of iPhone on the Orange network in the UK this week set a new launchday record, with more than 30,000 units being sold in one day.
.jpg)
.jpg)