No let up in smart phone frenzy

The smart phone market is continuing to grow unabated, increasing 55 per cent year on year.

According to research company Canalys, the smart phone market remains in rude heath, with several handset companies reporting strong growth in the segment.

Smart phone vs mobile phone

How is a smart device different from a common or garden mobile? Read What is a smart phone? to get the lowdown on just what makes some handsets special.

Nokia remains top dog in converged devices, although its closest rival in the vanilla phone market, Motorola, is gaining a little ground here too, leapfrogging BlackBerry-maker RIM to become the second largest vendor of smart phones.

Canalys found Nokia sold around nine million smart devices during the quarter, with Motorola notching up more than 1.6 million, followed by RIM with 1.2 million.

Motorola was able to beat RIM for the first time after shifting more than one million units in China, based on the Linux operating system, as well as the first sales of its Q smart phone, a Razr-inspired take on the BlackBerry, Treo et al.