As a proportion of all mobile device sales, smartphones remained stable at 12 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008, from 11 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2007. Samsung entered the top five vendors ranking for the first time (see Table 1), replacing Sharp. RIM recorded an increase in sales both sequentially and year-over-year, while Nokia's volumes continued to fall.

Table 2
Worldwide: Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor, 2008 (Thousands of Units)

Company	2008 Sales	Market Share  2008 (%)	2007 Sales	Market Share  2007   (%)	Growth 2007-2008   (%)
Nokia	60,920.5	43.7	60,465.0	49.4	0.8
Research In Motion	23,149.0	16.6	11,767.7	9.6	96.7
Apple	11,417.5	8.2	3,302.6	2.7	245.7
HTC	5,895.4	4.2	3,718.5	3.0	58.5
Sharp	5,234.2	3.8	6,885.3	5.6	-24.0
Others	32,671.4	23.5	36,176.6	29.6	-9.7
Total	139,287.9	100.0	122,315.6	100.0	13.9

Note: For HTC we only count the company's own-branded devices. The devices that HTC designs and which have the operator's brand are given separately under the operator’s name in our statistics.
Source: Gartner (March 2009)

In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Symbian's share of the global market decreased to 47.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008, down from its 2007 share of 62.3 per cent (see Table 3). Pressure from new platforms entering the consumer space, the continued decline of Nokia's smartphone sales and the weakness of the Japanese mobile device market have negatively affected Symbian's share. Meanwhile, RIM successfully grew its year-on-year share of the global smartphone market to 19.5 per cent from 10.9 per cent. Gartner estimated that Android smartphones accounted for 20 per cent of total Linux sales in the fourth quarter of 2008.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, Microsoft's share of the global smartphone market improved sequentially, with unit sales up 16 per cent over 3Q08. This was mainly driven by the popularity of Samsung Omnia and touchscreen products from HTC. Sales of Linux-based smartphones were up by 19 per cent year-over-year, mainly through Android-based smartphones being available through T-Mobile during the fourth quarter of 2008.

Table 4
Worldwide: Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System, 2008 (Thousands of Units)

Company	2008 Sales	Market Share  2008 (%)	2007 Sales	Market Share  2007 (%)	Growth 2007-2008 (%)
Symbian	72,933.5	52.4	77,684.0	63.5	-6.1
Research In Motion	23,149.0	16.6	11,767.7	9.6	96.7
Microsoft Windows Mobile	16,498.1	11.8	14,698.0	12.0	12.2
Mac OS X	11,417.5	8.2	3,302.6	2.7	245.7
Linux	11,262.9	8.1	11,756.7	9.6	-4.2
Palm OS	2,507.2	1.8	1,762.7	1.4	42.2
Other OSs	1,519.7	1.1	1,344.0	1.1	13.1
Total	139,287.9	100.0	122,315.6	100.0	13.9

Note: The "Other OSs" category includes sales of Sharp Sidekick devices based on the Danger platform.
Source: Gartner (March 2009)

Ms Cozza concluded: “In 2009, mobile platforms will be a major battleground as the associated user experience and role of the ecosystem grow in importance.”