Canalys has released data for worldwide shipments of smart mobile devices during the third quarter of this year. With global shipments up 75 percent year-over-year, the numbers signal a continuing shift from standalone handhelds to “converged smart mobile devices.” Motorola showed spectacular growth, attributed to sales of its Linux smartphones in China.

Global smart mobile device market market shares — Q3 2005 vs. Q3 2004

Vendor	Q3-05 shipments	Q3-05 share	Q3-04 Shipments	Q3-04 share	Q3-04 to Q3-05 Growth
Nokia	7,130,120	54.8%	2,951,450	39.7%	141.6%
Palm	1,053,390	8.1%	1,076,470	14.5%	-2.1%
RIM	997,940	7.5%	619,020	8.3%	58.0%
Motorola	693,650	5.3%	61,630	0.8%	1025.5%
HP	551,140	4.2%	689,410	9.3%	-20.1%
Others	2,598,440	20.0%	2,031,060	27.3%	27.9%
TOTAL	13,400,680	100	7,429,040	100	75.1%
Smart mobile device market — data includes handhelds, wireless handhelds, and smartphones. (Source: Canalys, (c) 2005.)

Canalys also pointed out that standalone handheld shipments dropped 18 percent year-over-year, while converged devices more than doubled their volumes.

Another analyst, Gartner, said in August that smartphones comprise the fastest-growing portion of the “mobile terminal” market, with sales expected to double year-over-year in 2006, reaching 200 million by 2008.

The top four vendor slots remain unchanged from Q2, but HP captured fifth place from Fujitsu. Nokia maintained its commanding lead with 142 percent year-over-year growth, almost twice the market average. Nokia's big winner was its 3G Symbian Series 60 smartphones including the 6680, 6630, N90, and N70, according to Canalys. Nevertheless, older devices, such as the 6600, continued to contribute to shipments, particularly in developing regions.

For the first time, second place Palm shipped more smartphones than handhelds, with the Treo 650 accounting for 53 percent of the company's total volume. Canalys also suggested that the recent announcement of Palm's Windows Mobile smartphone is likely to alter its product mix even more over the next six months.

Third place RIM's growth slowed again, down to 58 percent from 84 percent in the second quarter and 100 percent in Q1. “Despite pioneering the market for enterprise push email solutions and doing a great job of signing up new operators in many countries the company is coming under increasing pressure from a number of hardware and software vendors, all chasing this lucrative segment,” said Canalys analyst Rachel Lashford. Vendors “pushing” push email strategies — particularly into the Windows Mobile market — include Microsoft, Intellisync, and Scalix, among others.

Fourth place Motorola's spectacular quarterly growth rate was largely attributed to shipments of the company's Linux-based smartphones in China, where the devices' handwriting recognition capabilities have proved popular, Canalys said.

Rounding out the top five, HP, like Palm, saw a decided shift to converged devices. HP's Windows Mobile-powered hw6500 series wireless handhelds with integrated GPS — known in some circles as the “Treo killer” — did “particularly well” in Q3, according to Canalys.

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