Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the Blackberry, knocked Motorola off the list of the world's top five mobile phone manufacturers in the first quarter of 2010. Canada's RIM entered the list of top five vendors for the first time on worldwide sales of 10.6 million units in the first three months of the year, placing it in a tie for fourth with Sony Ericsson.
Motorola, which had been on the top five list since 2004, got another dose of bad news late last week when the US handset maker was supplanted by Apple as the leading US manufacturer of mobile devices.
Apple last week reported iPhone sales of 8.75 million units in the first three months of the year while Motorola on Thursday said it sold 8.5 million units in the corresponding period.
Finland's Nokia remained in the top spot on the IDC list of leading mobile phone makers with first-quarter sales of 107.8 million units and a market share of 36.6 percent, down from 38.4 percent a year ago.
South Korea's Samsung was next on sales of 64.3 million. Samsung increased its market share to 21.8 per cent from 18.9 per cent a year ago.
Another South Korean company, LG Electronics, was third on sales of 27.1 million. Its market share slipped 0.1 per cent to 9.2 percent.
Top 5 Mobile Phone Manufacturers
1. Nokia, 107.8 million units, 36.6%
2. Samsung, 64.3 million units, 21.8%
3. LG, 27.1 million units, 0.1%
4. RIM & Sony Ericsson, 10.6 million units
5. Apple, 8.75 million units
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