The industry as a whole still found its biggest audience in economically developed regions with faster networks and more disposable income. Overall global smartphone unit sales climbed 72.1 percent last year, from 172.3 million in 2009 to 296.6 million in 2010. Apple's iOS is in "excellent shape," according to Gartner. 4 spot in the global smartphone rankings last year, just behind BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. Those numbers helped Apple's mobile platform reach the No.
Market share for Apple's iOS inched up from 14.4 percent in 2009 to 15.7 percent in 2010, but its unit sales soared from 24.8 million in '09 to 46.6 million last year. Gartner noted one factor in Nokia's favor: Symbian is used by Fujitsu and Sharp and in legacy products from Sony Ericsson and Samsung.
The fourth quarter was especially weak for Symbian, allowing Android to actually overtake it in sales during the period. Though still in first place by a healthy margin, Nokia's Symbian saw its smartphone market share drop further, from 46.9 percent in 2009 to 37.6 percent in 2010. Sales received a strong kick in the fourth quarter due to demand for a number of high-end smartphones, including HTC's Evo 4G and Incredible, Samsung's Galaxy S series, and Motorola's Droid X and Droid 2, Gartner said in today's report. In terms of market share, that translates into major shift-from 3.9 percent in 2009 to 22.7 percent in 2010. Unit sales of smartphones running Google's mobile OS grew 888.8 percent year over year, from 6.8 million in 2009 to 67.2 million in 2010.
A surge in sales turned Android into the second biggest smartphone platform in the world last year, according to a new report from Gartner.