This represents a 0.1 per cent increase compared to the same time last year, while smartphone sales have increased by 12.8 per cent during the same timeframe, taking sales to 41 million units.
Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, explained that these increases are likely to be a result of the new handsets that are entering the market ahead of the Christmas season.
She said that "mobile carriers will run incentives for consumers during the holidays" and as a result, "we expect sales of mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2009 to show year-over-year growth".
In other news from Gartner, the organisation has predicted that 2010 will be the year that e-books become popular consumer devices, with interest in the technology reaching its peak during the Christmas period.
