The quarterly mobile phone market research report from Gartner also goes into the progress of the smartphone operating system market and it reveals which one continues to be top dog.

And it remains the Symbian operating system, although its share of the market dropped just over 5% to nearly 47% in 2009.

A Gartner spokesperson said:
“Symbian had become uncompetitive in recent years, but its market share, particularly on Nokia devices, is still strong. If Symbian can use this momentum, it could return to positive growth.”

Breathing down the neck of the Symbian operating system is of course the real powerhouses behind smartphones: Research in Motion’s operating system (which drives the BlackBerrys) and the iPhone operating system. These two gained ground in 2009, with an increase to 20% from 16% for Research In Motion and 8% to 14% for iPhone.

The other slight concern for the Symbian operating system – which is now fully open source - is that it is affected by the weakness of Nokia in the high-end smartphone market.

But things could improve with the impending release of Symbian3, announced at the recent Mobile World Congress 2010, and Symbian4 which will follow shortly afterwards.

The unloved Microsoft Windows Mobile lost market share, falling from nearly 12% to just below 9%. It remains to be seen how the latest reincarnation of the generally unpopular operating system will fair in 2010.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the new kid on the block, the Android operating system, rose nicely from 0.5% to nearly 4%. With it gaining popularity, it will be bound to stay on that sort of course throughout 2010.

The Gartner spokesperson added:
“Looking back at the announcements during Mobile World Congress 2010, we can expect 2010 to retain a strong focus around operating systems, services and applications while hardware takes a back seat. Sales will return to low-double-digit growth, but competition will continue to put a strain on vendors’ margins.”

So did worldwide mobile phone sales increase in 2009, or was the year a bit flat?

Latest figures from US research house Gartner show that the total number of phones sold worldwide in 2009 was 1.211 billion units, a 0.9% drop from 2008. Most of which one day will end up with the mobile phone recyclers.

On a slightly better note, sales in the fourth quarter of 2009 were actually up 8.3% (340 million units) over the fourth quarter of 2008, so the trend is getting better.

Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, said:
“The mobile devices market finished on a very positive note, driven by growth in smartphones and low-end devices. Smartphone sales to end users continued their strong growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, totalling 53.8 million units, up 41.1% from the same period in 2008. In 2009, smartphone sales reached 172.4 million units, a 23.8 per cent increase from 2008. In 2009, smartphone-focused vendors like Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) successfully captured market share from other larger device producers, controlling 14.4% and 19.9% of the worldwide smartphone market, respectively.”

Gartner also highlighted the intense competition felt by manufacturers in 2009, not only in growing markets such as China and India, but also in the mature markets. But, Gartner reckons that the stronger economic climate will mean better times throughout 2010.

As to the manufacturers themselves, the big five of Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson had mixed fortunes. As a group, they lost market share to the likes of Apple and other manufacturers, with their combined share dropping from 79.7% in 2008 to 75.3% in 2009.

Nokia’s share of the market dropped from 38.6% to 36.4% as pressure on smartphone price points took their toll. Samsung did actually better in 2009, going from 16.3% to 19.5%. LG also showed a market share improvement, up from 8.4% to 10.1%. But Motorola took a hit, falling from 8.7% to 4.8% and Sony Ericsson also showed a decline from 7.6% to 4.5%.

So how many devices did mobile phone giants Nokia sell in the last quarter of 2009 and do they still continue to dominate the market?

In their recent financial results announcement Nokia confirmed that they had sold some 126.9 devices, up 12% on the quarter, but perhaps more significantly, up 17% on the third quarter.

This is especially good when considering that Nokia estimates that overall industry mobile device volumes were only up 8% on the year and 14% from the preceding quarter.

Nokia reckons that they enjoyed a whopping mobile device market share of 39% in the fourth quarter, a 2% increase on the same period last year and 1% more than the previous quarter (Q3 2009).

Although, despite good sales figures and market shares, sales at 12 billion euros were down 5% compared to the fourth quarter 2008 and down a far larger 22% from the preceding quarter.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the CEO of Nokia, said:
“We grew our market share in smartphones in the fourth quarter, driven by the successful launch of new touch and QWERTY models. Our performance in smartphones, combined with continuing success in the emerging markets…Our solid results also owe a good deal to world class supply chain management and impressive sales execution.

“Our focus remains firmly on execution, especially around user experience. Here I want to highlight our move to shake up the navigation market with free walk and drive navigation on our smartphones, a good example of how we are leveraging our assets to bring real benefits to consumers.”

The reference to the smartphones market in the above quote might be seen by some observers as a nod to Nokia struggling in the past to make its prescence felt in the top end of this particularly demanding sector. In other words, it does not have the ‘killer’ device. Many feel that although Nokia does dominate in market share terms, it has not traditionally had a device which can take on the iconic iPhones and BlackBerrys.

Brands are of course fickle things and only time will tell as to whether a Nokia smartphone will genuinely begin to challenge the two brands that are considered the trend setters.

For many quarters the smartphone has set the pace, reporting rises within the general mobile phone market as the fastest growing segment. But in these austere times, has the smartphone run out of steam?

No says industry researchers Gartner. The rise of the smartphone to eventual world domination and control of the human species is continuing, with sales up an impressive 12.8%, equating to 41 million units.

Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, said about the wonder machine:
“Smartphones continued to represent the fastest-growing segment of the mobile-devices market and we remain confident about the potential for smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2009 and in 2010.”

And the top five players in the market haven’t changed that much, with Nokia leading the way with 39.3%; Research in Motion (BlackBerry) at 20.8%; Apple, 17.1%; HTC, 6.5%; and, Samsung bringing up the rear with 3.2%.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story of course. Nokia might be the leader in the market, but it was the only smartphone manufacturer in the third quarter to lose market share, around 3%, and an all-time low. Nokia might hog the middle ground, but it lacks a show stealer smartphone at the top end of the market. And nothing in the pipeline looks likely to steal the thunder of BlackBerry makers RIM, up nearly 5% and uber-cool Apple, which again took a 5% increase.

For RIM it was their highest share yet and particularly impressive as it appears to be more than holding it’s own against the cool kid on the block, Apple. But helping Blackberry were the Curve 8900 sales volumes in Europe and the Tour and Storm 2 with Verizon Wireless in the US. RIM also benefited from pre-paid sales and more flexible BlackBerry Internet Service offerings, which drove volumes in emerging markets like Latin America.

Apple shipped seven million units, as the rollout of the iPhone 3GS continued in new countries. And Apple is trying very hard in China.

HTC only put on 2%, but that only includes its own-branded products and does not reflect this comparatively new entrant’s dominance in this sector. Samsung nearly saved Nokia’s blushes, only managing a 0.2% increase.

In terms of the heart of the smartphone, the operating system, Symbian lost ground (because of Nokia’s performance), whereas Android picked up momentum. But with only a handful of Android devices available, its share remained small at 3.5%. The oft-quoted demise of the Windows Mobile operating system is complicated by the fact that version 6.5 only became available in October, too late to have an impact on the third quarter, so sales of Windows-based smartphones saw another decline.

The worldwide mobile phone market grew by 308.9 million units in the third quarter of 2009 say researchers Gartner. But although that means another 300 or so million phones for the planet to eventually recycle, it’s a paltry 0.1% increase from the same period in 2008. But what about sales in the fourth quarter, and how have the top five manufacturers performed?

Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, said on the figures:
“The third quarter of 2009 saw the announcement of many new mobile devices, including several Android smartphones ready for the holiday season in the fourth quarter, but hardware commoditisation and the growth in open platforms will make it harder for them to stand out.

“Meanwhile, the channel slowed its inventory-reduction efforts so while some sales volumes increased, average selling prices (ASPs) stagnated. We expect pressure on ASP to continue into 2010.

“Many devices will reach the market in time for Christmas, and mobile carriers will run incentives for consumers during the holidays. We expect sales of mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2009 to show year-over-year growth. As many vendors and industry watchers call for a decrease in sales into the channel, our sell through data is showing that 2009 performance will be flat rather than down over 2008.”

During the period under review, Nokia remained top-dog with a whopping 113.5 million phones shipped, a handsome 36.7% of the market, although that was down a touch from the 38.2% gained in the third quarter 2008. Nokia was faced with component shortages, but also that familiar problem of not having a knock-em-dead, top of the market smartphone. Nokia dominated the mid-tier market, but seemed unable to make a killing at the upper end.

Samsung consolidated its number two slot in the market with a very strong 2009 third quarter, increasing its market share 2.5% over last year, at 60.6 million units. Samsung got most things right, having a good time with touchscreen devices, qwerty phones and smartphones driving sales in the mature markets of Europe and the US. In emerging markets, it’s policy of refreshing older models helped the good figures.

In common with Nokia, third-placed LG appears more comfortable in the middle ground and lacks a smartphone portfolio. And it did manage to increase its market share from 7.8% to 10.3% with 31.9 million phones shipped.

The remaining two of the big five mobile phone manufacturers didn’t fair so well as their peers. Number four, Motorola, lost 3.5% share of the market, shipping 13.9 million phones, as it waits for fourth quarter product launches. Fifth placed Sony Ericsson dropped about the same market share as Motorola, selling nearly the same amount of phones, 13.4 million, as sales of it’s phones deteriorated.