Canalys.com is reporting that Apple grabbed 28% of the US smartphone market and 6.5% globally for the fourth quarter of 2007, shipping 2,320,840 of its popular iPhone handset, and only narrowly defeating Motorola (who shipped 2,301,260 units) for third place. Meanwhile, Nokia and Research In Motion (RIM) sold 18,802,480 and 4,046,860 units, respectively, the former selling more than 4 times of the latter.
Other vendors accounted for 22.7% of smartphone sales, shipping 8,050,920 phones in total. All smartphone vendors experienced considerable growth in Q4 2007 compared to the same quarter of 2006, as the entire market grew by 71.9%. All major vendors inflated their sales numbers by more than 50%, with RIM increasing their sales by an incredible 121.2%, and managed to also increase their market share (unlike each other vendor, who lost their market share to Apple).
Said Peter Cunningham, Senior Analyst at Canalys, "When you consider that [the iPhone] launched part way through the year, with limited operator and country coverage, and essentially just one product, Apple has shown very clearly that it can make a difference and has sent a wakeup call to the market leaders".
Apple also overtook the total Windows Mobile share in the US, which sat at 21%, and is used by many of the smaller smartphone makers.