• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, September 6, 2011

Just last year, Nokia had over double Apple's mobile market share. By the end of this year, however, Taipai-based daily Digitimes is predicting that Apple will blow Nokia's once-dominant position to bits.

"Apple's smartphone shipments are projected to top 86.4 million units in 2011, up 82% from 47.5 million units in 2010," according to Luke Lin, analyst for Digitimes Research. "In contrast, Nokia's smartphone shipments in 2011 will decline to 74.4 million units from over 100 million in 2010."

"The news is a reminder of just how far Nokia has fallen from grace, and how much influence Apple holds by being the only manufacturer of the iPhone," MobileBeat writes. "While the combined amount of Android phones shipping still outnumber the iPhone, the fact that Apple is set to become the world's single largest phone manufacturer is notable."

"Just because it almost doubled its unit shipment, doesn't mean it is game over for Apple, however," 9to5Mac writes. "Android makers Samsung, HTC, LG, Huawei and ZTE all showed better percentage gains though they shipped relatively few smartphones in 2010."

In particular, "Samsung's strong growth on the popularity of several of its Android-based handsets should see it leap over both HTC and Research in Motion, writes MacRumors, adding, "but will not yet be enough to catch either Nokia or Apple in full-year shipments."

"In all, the top five smartphone makers -- Apple, Nokia, Samsung, Research in Motion and HTC -- are forecast to top 333 million units," AppleInsider notes. "Together, they would account for 72 percent of total units shipped in 2011."