Nokia has dropped out of the top five global smartphone vendors, with its place being taken by BlackBerry manufacturer RIM.

Samsung extended its lead as the world's top smartphone vendor in the third quarter of 2012, followed by Apple, according to IDC's quarterly tracking survey.

Nokia, once the top smartphone vendor in the world, fell out of the top five for the first time since IDC began tracking the market in 2004.

"Nokia's share losses have meant gains for competitors," said Kevin Restivo, an analyst at IDC. "The company's transition away from Symbian-powered smartphones to ones shipped with Windows Phone has left ample opportunity for rivals to steal share away from Nokia over the past 18 months.

"However, the smartphone market is still relatively nascent, which means there's room for multiple vendors and operating systems to flourish, including Nokia."

Nokia's place in the top five was taken by Research In Motion, the Canadian firm that makes BlackBerry smartphones. Its shipments and market share declined year-on-year but its position in third on the list was helped by the greater decline of Nokia and by a slumping HTC, which was ahead of RIM this time last year but fell to fifth in the last quarter.

Making up the top five was Chinese firm ZTE, which is fourth in the IDC list with a 4.2 per cent share of the market.

The figures show that Samsung dominates the market, with a 31.3 per cent share, while Apple is second with 15 per cent. However, IDC's data includes only the first week of iPhone 5 sales.

In overall mobile phone shipments Nokia remains in second place globally, with 18.7 per cent of the market, ahead of Apple's 6.1 per cent but behind Samsung's 23.7 per cent share.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/nokia/9636386/Nokia-ousted-from-smartphone-top-five.html


Good news for blackberry users..lol..

Nokia perhaps should focus on the mid-priced/budget phone niche of the market.

This is not so much an issue. It was well expected even by Nokia themselves considering the break in compatibility between the current lumia phones and windows phone 8.

Afterall BB was out of the top 5 last quarter but have improved.
What is important is that they are now profitable and with the release of new windows phone 8 devices and more budget friendly devices, the end of this quarter should be the real indicator of their future.

jedisco: This is not so much an issue. It was well expected even by Nokia themselves considering the break in compatibility between the current lumia phones and windows phone 8.

Afterall BB was out of the top 5 last quarter but have improved.
What is important is that they are now profitable and with the release of new windows phone 8 devices and more budget friendly devices, the end of this quarter should be the real indicator of their future.

So do you see the BB going anywhere up after the release of the BB10 platform?

This is no much of news!