IDC releases Q1 2011 shipments data, Apple doubles marketshare

According to the analysts from IDC, the global mobile phone market grew by almost 20% compared to Q1 of last year. This is mostly due to the skyrocketing in smartphone sales, especially in emerging markets all over the world.

The 20 percent difference in units shipped amount to some good 61.3 million handsets. It's a record number and a huge leap, proving that the mobile phone business is out of the financially challenging woods.

According to the IDC, the smartphone market grew in the Asia/Pacific, Africa, Latin America and Middle East regions, boosting the number of overall shipments.

Smartphones are quickly gaining ground over feature phones and demand for them will keep increasing. But IDC is skeptical about feature phone extinction as there's still high global demand for them.

In the US and Canada smartphones, like the iPhone, Blackberries and Android devices were the top selling phones in Q1 2011. The iPhone 4 and HTC Thunderbolt were the most wanted gadgets there.

The market in Western Europe was good for Android and iOS too, as they were the main focus of buyers attention.

Check out the top 5 chart with detailed information on units shipped and market share percentage over the course of the last year.

Nokia still remains at the top of the mobile food chain, although it did lose some 5.5% of market share year-to-year. LG also gave up some ground with its market share going from 8.7% down to 6.6%, but this will probably change as its new 3D-capable devices hit the shelves in mass numbers.

Apple doubled its market share due to their consecutive record quarter.

Source