Gartner said that the increase in sales helped to propel the worldwide mobile-phone market to 1.6 billion units.
Along the way, Research In Motion and Apple became the fourth- and fifth-biggest mobile-phone companies, displacing Sony Ericsson and Motorola Mobility.
And according to Gartner, handsets with Google Inc.’s Android software overtook Nokia’s sales of Symbian smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2010.
"The decline is not solely attributable to Nokia’s continuing deficiency in high-end devices but is in part the result of the growth of legitimate white-box sales,” Carolina Milanesi, a Gartner analyst, said in the report.
This comes after it was revealed recently that the Nexus S will end its exclusive run with the Carphone Warehouse.
Instead, the Google-branded smartphone will now be stocked by Vodafone.
While Vodafone has yet to confirm when the handset will be available, it is understood it could be in UK stores as soon as March.
Posted by Andre Dixon
