Holiday Gift Guide »

RIM Passes Sony Ericsson, Motorola Shipments in Q1- Research

By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 at 6:57 AM

Gartner has published some of their findings for Q1 2010 mobile shipments by manufacturer, with numbers that line up nicely with IDC’s research for the same period. As you can see, RIM is now firmly planted in the number four spot of all mobile manufacturers worldwide (3.4% market share), a placing agreed upon by two independent studies. Although Apple still has some catching up to do (2.7%) with BlackBerry’s market share, they’re making excellent progress, having more than doubled their unit shipments since last year (3.9 million vs. 8.3 million). Nokia continues to float up in the stratosphere with its interminable legions of featurephones (35%), followed by Samsung (20.6%)  and LG (8.6%). These Q1 numbers differ slightly from iSuppli’s, who put Sony Ericsson’s shipments just a bit above RIM’s and Apple and ZTE above Motorola, so take it all with a grain of salt.

In terms of smartphone operating systems, iPhone and Android have seen the biggest jumps (10.5% to 15.4% and 1.6% to 9.6%, respectively). Windows Mobile continues to wind down (6.8%), while Symbian (44.3%) and BlackBerry (19.4%) still top the list.

Good on BlackBerry and iPhone for capturing such a significant portion of the global mobile market with smartphones alone. ABI says that smartphones in particular grew 25% last quarter, while the industry overall, according to Gartner, has grown only 17%. If smartphones continue to outpace lower-end feature phones at this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised to see RIM overtake LG this time next year and claim the number three spot.

[via Gartner]

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

  • oposum

    No one noticed HTC isnt mentioned? The leading hardware company pushing and producing the best Android (market share 9.6%) phones, imho.

    • Simon

      Hey, good point. Guess the numbers weren't available.

  • takaaki.nunotani

    None

  • P10-17000

    The biggest gain is with Android, that sextupled it’s market share, If Android continues to do that (And it will since almost every ad is for and android phone) it will have 57.6% market share by this time next year, even if it continues it’s 8% annual growth rate, it will top Apple and be just behind Blackberry, if you don’t see this trend, you are blind!

    Noone is going to pay exorbitant prices for Apple and RIM products when the supply of Android phones makes thier prices beyond competitive, it is happening as we speak.