Smartphone sales in the first quarter accounted for 23.6 percent of global handset shipments overall -- an increase of 85 percent year over year, according to Gartner 
. Android-based smartphones led the field with a 36 percent share of the 107.7 million units shipped globally in the quarter -- up from 9.6 percent at the same time last year.
In the mobile -handset market overall, first-quarter sales totaled 427.8 million -- a 19 percent rise from one year earlier. However, Gartner is being cautious about predicting handset growth for all of 2011 in light of a 13.3 million-unit rise in channel inventory levels and some signs of softening user demand in emerging markets at the beginning of the quarter.
"We are currently revising down our 2011 sales estimate as a result of these trends, and expect [handset shipments overall] will likely drop to between 1.790 billion and 1.795 billion units," said Gartner Research Vice President Carolina Milanesi. "[But] we do not see much impact on overall sales of smartphones," she added in an e-mail Thursday.
Impressive Results from Apple'
Despite its looming transition to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 platform, Nokia managed to ship enough Symbian-based smartphones to maintain a 27.4 percent market share at the end of the first quarter. Still, this was dramatically down from the 44.2 percent smartphone market share Nokia held 12 months earlier.
Apple finished in third place with a 16.8 percent share. The iPhone maker's shipment of 16.9 million units was a remarkable testament to the iPhone's continuing ability to generate robust demand -- up from 8.36 million units in the same quarter last year, Gartner's analysts noted.
Apple's iPhone inventory levels at the end of the quarter were slightly higher than usual, with Apple continuing to expand in China and elsewhere overseas. Apple also extended the iPhone's reach by cutting a number of new distribution deals with communication -service providers, Gartner analysts noted.
"This strong performance helped Apple consolidate its position as the fourth-largest brand in the mobile communication market overall," Milanesi said. "Considering the higher-than-average price of the iPhone, this is a remarkable result and highlights the impact that a strong aspirational brand can have on a product."
Still, smartphone sales overall could have been even higher in the quarter, noted Roberta Cozza, a principal research analyst at Gartner. "But manufacturers announced a number of high-profile devices that would not ship until the second quarter," Cozza said. "We believe some consumers delayed their purchases to wait for these models." (continued...)
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