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iPhone booms, smartphones zoom in record 2009

Apple saw the largest growth, with iPhone shipments increasing 98 percent in the fourth quarter and 82 percent for the year, IDC reported Thursday.

Jim Dalrymple Special to CNET News
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to record music using a Macintosh. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. He currently runs The Loop.
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Jim Dalrymple

Market research firm IDC on Thursday reported a record level of smartphone shipments for the fourth quarter of 2009, when vendors shipped 54.4 million devices. That's up 39 percent from the same quarter a year ago, the company said.

The handset company with the largest growth in 2009 was Apple. Apple's unit shipments for the year were 25.1 million, up from 13.8 million units in 2008. The company's market share rose from 9.1 percent in 2008 to 14.4 percent in 2009, an 81.9 percent year-over-year increase.

IDC

That represents the largest year-over-year increase of any mobile manufacturer, according to IDC.

Fourth quarter 2009 shipments and market share were even better for Apple. The company shipped 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter, up from 4.4 million units during the same quarter of 2008. Its market share rose from 11.2 percent in 2008 to 16 percent in 2009, representing a 97.7 percent growth increase.

IDC

Apple finished in the third spot for the fourth quarter and yearly market share. Nokia took the top spot finishing the year with 67.7 million shipments, an 11.9 percent increase over 2008. Its market share was 38.9 percent.

Research In Motion finished in second place with 34.5 million shipments for 2009, an increase of 46.2 percent over 2008, and a 19.8 percent market share.