RIM breaks into top 5 in rising mobile phone market

Monday, 03 May 2010, 14:44 IST   |    1 Comments
Printer Print Email Email
RIM breaks into top 5 in rising mobile phone market
Helsinki: Backed up by the growing demands of smartphones, Blackberry-maker Research in Motion (RIM) broke into the top five cellphone makers in January-March for the first time ever. According to the IDC?s estimation, RIM shipped 10.6 million phones in January-March, just ahead of Sony Ericsson's 10.5 million, reports Tarmo Virki from the Reuters. The global handset market has been dominated by five major players -Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics, Motorola and Sony Ericsson- for the last five years. The research firm also stated that all vendors in total made 295 million phones in the quarter, up 21.7 percent from a year ago, and stuck to its 11 percent market growth forecast for 2010. "The entrance of RIM into the top 5 underscores the sustained smartphone growth trend that is driving the global mobile phone market recovery," IDC Analyst Kevin Restivo told Reuters. Motorola, who was the second largest phone maker just six years ago, sold 8.5 million phones in the quarter, falling also behind Apple, who sold 8.75 million iPhones. Nokia shipped 107.8 million phones in the quarter, with Korean vendors Samsung and LG selling 64.3 million and 27.1 million phones, respectively.