Growth in the global smartphone market dipped to 11.5 per cent in the third quarter year-on-year, the slowest rate of growth since it started tracking smartphone sales, according to research firm Gartner.
Some 36.5 million smartphones were sold globally in the July-September quarter.
Despite all vendors seeking a larger slice of the smartphone market, the growth rate is expected to continue slowing.
Gartner also painted a fairly gloomy picture for the handset market generally, something announcements by the likes of Nokia and RIM over the past few days have done nothing to dispel.
Not surprisingly, it blamed the current economic climate for "negatively impacting" on sales of high-end devices.
Nokia maintained its No.1 position with 42.4 per cent market share in the third quarter of 2008, but for the first time it recorded a decline in sales of 3 per cent year-on-year.
Gartner attributed the drop to increased competition in the consumer smartphone market.
Sales of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones increased 81.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2008.
Apple regained its No.3 position in the global smartphone market and improved its market share to 12.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2008.
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