RIM now world’s fourth biggest phone vendor

Changing of the guard

The latest survey of the global mobile phone market from IDC reveals healthy year-on-year growth of 21.7 percent, with increased demand for smartphones and the general economic recovery the key factors.

Among the vendors, Nokia remains number one on units shipped, but its market share continues to slip. Nokia owned 36.4 percent of the market in Q1, down almost two percentage points from a year ago. Meanwhile second placed Samsung gained almost three percentage points of market share to 21.8 percent.

The only change in the top five concerned the Canadian BlackBerry-maker RIM, which jumped to fourth overall. It replaced Motorola, meaning there are now no US vendors in the top five. Motorola is not even the biggest US vendor according to Forbes. That accolade now goes to Apple, which shifted 8.8 million iPhones to Motorola's 8.5 million.

This isn't necessarily bad for Motorola, however, as it is primarily targeting the higher value, lower volume smartphone market. "The entrance of RIM into the top 5 underscores the sustained smartphone growth trend that is driving the global mobile phone market recovery," said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC. "This is also the first time a vendor has dropped out of the top 5 since the second quarter of 2005, when Sony Ericsson grabbed the number 5 spot from BenQ Siemens."

"It should be noted that the market's first-quarter growth, while impressive, is relative to one of the worst quarters in mobile phone industry history (1Q09). The market's growth should not be taken as a proxy for future quarters nor annual growth. In fact, the results essentially match our first quarter projections. We are still expecting growth of 11% for 2010."

Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q1 2010 (Units in Millions)

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, April 29, 2010

Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.