Apple and RIM pulling punches in smartphone market

Should Nokia be worried?

7 November 2008 11:01 GMT / By Katie Scott

The BlackBerry Storm was officially launched yesterday, and you can't go anywhere in the UK without seeing someone fiddling with their iPhone, but have Apple and RIM gained enough fans to make the traditional smartphone players worried?

Well according to the latest figures from market research firm Canalys Nokia in particular should be concerned.

Both RIM and Apple have won larger shares of the smartphone market, while Nokia's share fell to 38.9% in the last quarter from 51.4% for the same period a year before.

However, Apple's market share jumped to 17.3% and RIM's to 15.2% in the quarter.

"The introduction of the iPhone 3G in July and Apple's expansion into many more countries helped propel the vendor to second place globally", Canalys said in a statement.

The team also added that the newly released Storm, coupled with the already popular Bold and Pearl, may see RIM take the second spot off Apple in the fourth quarter of 2008.

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Phones, Biz, Mobile phone industry, Mobile phones, RIM, BlackBerry, Apple, iPhone