Nokia Loses Huge Smartphone Market share To Apple And RIM

Apple and RIM are catching up on Nokia according to research published by Analyst firm Canalys based on data gathered for Q3 2008 which shows that Nokia should be worried about the two companies.

While the overall global shipment of Smartphones improved markedly in Q3, the three smartphones had varying fortunes. 

40 million units were sold, or roughly one in every eight phones, a 28 percent jump over the Q3 2007 and the clearest indication that the market is moving to more sophisticated phone models.

The Finnish mobile phone manufacturer saw its market share stumble from 51.4 percent in 2007 to 38.9 percent this year, a huge 25 percent fall.

Over the same period, Apple's market share went up to 17.3 percent while RIM's portion of the market reached 15.2 percent in Q3 2008, fuelled by a whopping 80 percent growth.

The bold iPhone strategy was credited with improving Apple's stand in the red hot smartphone market, thrusting it to second place.

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Windows Mobile comes fourth with 13.6 percent with the remaining 15 percent shared between a number of smaller players like Palm or Android.

As expected, the Symbian platform recorded a similar fall, dropping from 68.1 percent to 46.6 percent as growing numbers adopt rival platforms like the iPhone and Blackberry OS.

2009 looks like another crunch year with all eyes on the newcomer, Android, as Google's own platform tries its best to gnaw some market share from its competitors.