According to research firm IDC’s latest numbers, Research in Motion has managed to move into the top five of worldwide cell phone manufacturers for the very first time, thanks to global economic recovery and the increasing demand for smartphones.RIM, now the world’s fourth largest handset vendor, shipped 10.6 million devices around the world in the first quarter of 2010, surpassing both Motorola and Sony Ericsson. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 and Bold 9700 sold particularly well across multiple markets. Unlike the other top four, the company does not manufacture traditional phones but solely smartphones. IDC pointed out the rise of RIM highlighted the fast growth of smartphones, which in turn speeds up the recovery of the overall mobile handset market.
In comparison, Sony Ericsson, who used to be in RIM’s spot, dropped to the fifth place with 10.5 million units sold. Motorola, who had been in the top five listing since IDC’s first quarterly tracking in 2004, slipped out of the first tier by shipping only 8.5 million units for the three-month period, nearly 2 million units less than those of RIM.
Unsurprisingly, the top three spots remain unchanged. Nokia takes the lead by selling 107.8 million cell phones during the quarter; Samsung ranks the second with 64.3 million units sold, seeing a major growth of 40.1 percent; and LG follows behind with 27.1 million shipments.
In total, 294.9 million handsets were shipped worldwide during the first quarter of 2010, representing an impressive 21.7 percent rebound when compared to 242.4 million shipments in the year-ago quarter. IDC forecasts the recovery to continue throughout the ongoing year, though at a slower rate. Overall growth rate in sales for the year is expected to be 11 percent.
With BlackBerry OS 6.0 and new devices like BlackBerry Pearl 3G and Bold 9650 coming, RIM will very likely continue to gain momentum among both business users and consumers.
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