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.”

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.

Spanish mobile phone users get the chance to play with the BlackBerry Curve 8520 from next month. Research In Motion (RIM) has just announced that the Curve 8520 will be available from Spanish wireless carriers from September in two colours: Black and Frost. But will the Curve do well in the Spanish market…?

The BlackBerry Curve is a sophisticated smartphone which has become de rigeur for the successful executive. And with 19% of the smartphone market, the Canadian based RIM are one of the few companies that seem able to resist the advances of the iPhone.

The ‘…should I buy a Blackberry, or iPhone…’ debate has become a little like PC versus Mac. One might have all the right whistles and bells, but the other looks cool enough to forget your advancing years. With an iPhone in your hand, it’s a portal to eternal youth. With a Blackberry in your hand, you can afford eternal youth.

For those that like to stay connected to the Matrix, one of the phone’s fortes is easy mobile access to email, messaging (including IM, SMS and MMS) and those ever-popular social sites, including Facebook.

Sending emails around to all and sundry is of course the raison d’être of the BlackBerry, or CrackBerry as it became known, because of its addictive characteristics. The ping of the incoming email was cause enough for many to not sleep and seek external help. But it seems less of a problem these days, as people become used to an ‘always-on culture.’

True to its business pedigree, the phone features a full QWERTY keyboard which allows fast, easy typing.

“More and more cell phone users are choosing to upgrade to a smartphone and the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 will undoubtedly convince many more people in Spain to make the switch. It is a great new addition to the BlackBerry Curve series and delivers all the great messaging, social networking and multimedia features that customers have come to love about BlackBerry smartphones.” said Carlo Chiarello, vice president, product management, Research In Motion.

Features include:
•    touch-sensitive trackpad;
•    256MB Flash memory and 512Mhz processor;
•    voice activated dialing; Bluetooth (2.0);
•    2 MP digital camera with zoom and video recording;
•    Advanced media player for music, pictures and videos;
•    Access to BlackBerry App World;
•    BlackBerry Internet Service support for access to up to 10     supported email accounts;
•    expandable memory via hot swappable microSD/SDHC memory     card slot, supporting up to 16 GB cards;
•    built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g);
•    Quad-band world phone: EGDE/GPRS/GSM (850/900/1800/1900     MHz).

Go to www.blackberry.com/curve8520 to have a look.