• Apple Insider, Friday, May 6, 2011 12:34 PM

In the first calendar quarter, Apple outpaced the smartphone industry's average growth of 79.7%, according to new data from IDC. As a result, as Apple Insider notes, Apple was able to edge out RIM as the second-largest producer of smartphones behind Nokia. During the quarter, according to IDC, Apple sold 18.7 million iPhones, giving it an 18.7% share of the market -- or almost exactly 100 million devices.

"That put Apple within 6 million units of first place Nokia, which grew only 12.6 percent over the year ago quarter, dropping its leading share of the smartphone market from 38.8 percent to just 24.3 percent," Apple Insider points out. According to IDC: "As Nokia transitions from Symbian to Windows Phone, it may find itself in danger of ceding market share as the competition ramps up smartphone production."

Meanwhile, Blackberry-maker RIM grew by just 31.1%, less than half the industry average, while Samsung grew by a whopping 350% -- although it was growing from sales of just 2.4 million a year ago.

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