Iphone kicks Blackberry into third place in smart phone race

SMART PHONE buyers have voted with their credit cards to put Apple's Iphone into second place behind the seemingly unassailable Nokia in the smart phone wars.

Anal list maker Canalys estimated that global shipments of smart phones hit a new peak of just under 40 million units in Q3 2008. Which means smart phones now represent around 13 per cent of the total mobile phone market, up from 11 per cent last quarter.

The introduction of the Iphone 3G in July and Apple’s expansion into dozens of previously untapped markets helped propel the Cupertino company to second place globally, taking it above Canadian Blackberry maker RIM in the quarter and resulting in higher shipments than for every single Windows-based smart phone combined.

Apple also took second spot in terms of operating system share with a massive 523 per cent growth on the same period last year, and Symbian losing out to just about every other OS available. µ

L'Inq
Canalys