Apple overtakes Nokia as leading smartphone manufacturer

Apple has overtaken Nokia as the leading smartphone manufacturer in western Europe by sales, but Android is tipped to be the biggest-growing operating system in 2011, according to figures from IDC.

The iPhone maker now has a market share of 21 per cent, one per cent ahead of Nokia, despite entering the market in 2007, it was noted in the IDC European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report.

Nokia, meanwhile, has seen smartphone market share plummet from 75 per cent in 2005 to 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2011.

However, Francisco Jeronimo, research manager for European mobile devices at IDC, predicted that Nokia can rebound if it continues to release devices such as the MeeGo-based N9 and because of its partnership with Microsoft to use the Windows Phone operating system.

"Nokia announced the N9 today, running the MeeGo interface, which is the best user interface that the firm has used in a smartphone to date," said Jeronimo during an IDC webinar.

"This is a good sign for Nokia and shows it is on the right track to compete with Apple and Android devices. The Windows Phone platform is also going to be one of the key players in the smartphone market and will help Nokia grow again."

RIM was in third place with a 17 per cent share of the smartphone market thanks to the popularity of its BlackBerry handsets and was followed by Samsung (14 per cent) and HTC (12 per cent).