• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 29, 2010

In the third quarter, Apple for the first time cracked the top five mobile phone manufacturers globally, moving ahead of BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion and Sony Ericsson into fourth place with a 4.1% market share. Apple's jump into the top ranks was propelled by the 14 million iPhones it sold during the quarter despite the early flap over the iPhone 4's external antenna.

"The entrance of Apple to the top 5 vendor ranking underscores the increased importance of smartphones to the overall market," said Kevin Restivo, an IDC senior research analyst. "Vendors that aren't developing a strong portfolio of smartphones will be challenged to maintain and grow market share in the future."

Nokia remained the world's leading handset maker, with a 32.5% share, but that's down from a 36.5% share a year ago. The overall mobile phone market was up almost 15% in the third quarter from a year earlier--the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit gains--driven by the rapidly-growing smartphone segment. Read more here.