The Independent recently carried two articles that are of interest to those following the global growth of the smartphone market, which is more aptly thought of as the worldwide transition to mobile broadband. The first of these reports on data from a recent Gartner study showing that Google's Android system surged past Apple's iPhone and Canada's Blackberry in the third quarter of this year to become the second biggest smartphone platform, after Nokia's Symbian. Based on third quarter sales, Nokia held a 36.6 percent market share, compared with 25.5 percent for Android, 16.7 percent for Apple and 14.8 percent for Blackberry. Among other trends, smartphone sales grew 96 percent in the third quarter and accounted for 19.3 percent of overall mobile phone sales. Nokia continued to be the leading handset manufacturer in the world, followed by Samsung and LG. Samsung, according to Gartner, was the top Android seller in the third quarter, with sales of 6.6 million Android phones.
The second article of interest appeared last month, and relates to an earlier post on this blog. It deals with the interesting relationship between Apple and Samsung as competitors yet partners in the global roll out of mobile broadband via smartphones.