X

iPhone shipments up 131 percent in first quarter

The year-over-year boost in shipments gives Apple a more than five-point increase in market share among smartphone makers, inching it closer to RIM territory.

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.
See full bio
Jim Dalrymple

Apple iPhone shipments surged 131.6 percent in the first quarter over the same period last year, according to a report released Friday.

Market researcher IDC said 8.8 million iPhones shipped in the first quarter, compared with 3.8 million in year-ago period. The boost in shipments places Apple in third spot among smartphone vendors with 16.1 percent market share, behind No. 1 Nokia with 39.3 percent and No. 2 Research In Motion with 19.3 percent. HTC came in at No. 4, at 4.8 percent, and Motorola was No. 5 with 4.2 percent share.

IDC's smartphone shipment figures. Units are in millions. IDC

Apple's market share rose from the first quarter of 2009 when it is was 10.9 percent. Nokia remained constant year over year at 39.3 percent. RIM's share dropped slightly from 20.9 percent. HTC rose from 4.3 percent. And Motorola grew from 3.4 percent.

IDC's report said that smartphone vendors collectively shipped 54.7 million units in the first quarter, up 56.7 percent from the 34.9 million shipped in the year-ago quarter. By contrast, IDC said, the overall mobile phone market grew 21.7 percent year over year.