Report: 250 million smartphones shipped in Q3
Shipments are accelerating the most outside of the United States, according to a report from Canalys.
Everyday seems to bring another analyst report or memo declaring the continuing proliferation of smartphones worldwide, and that trend certainly rolled right through the third quarter.
This time the update comes from Canalys, which revealed smartphone shipments grew by 44 percent year-over-year in Q3.
But the number to know is simple yet astounding. The tech insight firm cited that nearly a quarter of a billion (yes, billion) smartphones shipped over the three-month period.
Naturally, there were some familiar names leading the way, such as Samsung and Apple.
The mobile phone rivals maintained the top two spots on the global vendor charts with with market shares of 34 percent and 15 percent respectively. Huawei, Lenovo and LG rounded out the top five.
Interestingly, Android and iOS don't appear to have actually grown much, but Canalys highlighted that Microsoft's Windows Mobile grew its share of the pie by 4 percent.
Another lesson that could be extracted from the report is the most successful screen size. With more than 56 million units shipped in Q3, the five-inch and above bracket for form factors is looking like the sweet spot now in the smartphone space.
But looking at the global figures on a more local level, shipments are accelerating the most outside of the United States.
Nicole Peng, a research director at Canalys covering China, hinted in the report at how the mobile OEMs play into this:
Samsung was the leading vendor across all regions except North America, where Apple held the top spot. These two vendors account for almost 70 percent of the market there. LG held onto third place in North America, while Nokia has moved from eighth to fourth place after making gains from its competitors with its new flagship products, the Lumia 1020 and 925.
Namely, Greater China (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) again grew the most by 64 percent with nearly 100 million units shipped.
Latin America followed with the second highest growth rate at 59 percent -- despite being the smallest smartphone market with 19 million units shipping.
This story originally appeared as "Canalys: Quarter of a billion smartphones shipped in Q3" on ZDNet.