IDC in a roundup of final phone market share saw Apple move faster than its rivals. Its 18.65 million iPhones shipped in the winter nearly doubled its market share form year to year to give it five percent of the total cellphone market. The growth was enough to push it past ZTE, which even with fast growth from low-end Android phones in China was overtaken at 15.1 million phones and 4.1 percent share.
All of the top three phone makers above Apple and ZTE lost share during the period. Nokia correctly predicted a drop to 29 percent share that kept it out in front but with a much smaller lead. Samsung’s own shipment drop saw it fall to 18.8 percent as its smartphones weren’t enough to offset drops in its basic phone business. LG saw its phone shipments drop outright and sink to 24.5 million phones and 6.6 percent.
RIM is notably back out of the top five at 14.9 million and has warned that it expects lower BlackBerry shipments. Nokia believes it will gain market share next year when it starts to ship Windows Phone 7 Phones.
