Mobile phones worldwide market share 4Q 2010 and Global 2010.

WorldWideTech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Global mobile handset shipments reached 1.36 billion in 2010, some 190 million more than in the previous year, according to new statistics from Strategy Analytics, which also highlighted the big winners and losers in the vendor community as the industry bounced back from the economic downturn.

The numbers were boosted by strong growth in the smartphone space, which recorded 293 million shipments last year, up significantly from 175 million in 2009 and almost double 2008's 151 million units.

In the overall market, "smartphone specialists and dual-SIM handset vendors made gains at the expense of several established mega-vendors," Strategy Analytics said in a report. "For example, Apple surged while Nokia and LG slowed down."

Apple shipped 47.5 million iPhones in 2010, up from 25.1 million a year earlier, giving it a 3.5% share of the market, and 16.2% of the smartphone sector. The U.S. firm recorded a particularly strong fourth quarter, shipping 16.2 million devices or 4.1% of the market.

Worldwide shipments in Q4 reached 400 million, of which almost a quarter – 94 million – were smartphones.

Meanwhile, both Nokia and LG shipped fewer handsets in the fourth quarter than they did in Q4 2009. Nokia saw its market share slip to 31% in Q4, down from 36.8% a year earlier, on 123.7 million unit shipments compared with 126.9 million; Strategy Analytics puts its share for full-year 2010 at 33.3%, a fall of 3.6 percentage points from 2009. It was a similar story for LG, which was responsible for just 7.7% of shipments in Q4 and saw its full-year market share slide 1.5 percentage points to 8.6%.

However, there was one bright spot for Nokia. The 28.3 million smartphones it shipped in Q4 meant it became the world's first vendor to ship a total of 100 million [smartphone] units in a single year," Strategy Analytics noted. Nokia's 2010 smartphone tally came in at 100.1 million, giving it 34.2% of the market, down from 38.8% in 2009.

At its fourth quarter and full-year results announcement on Thursday, Nokia itself reported falling device volumes across all its operating regions, with the exception of  Greater China. CEO Stephen Elop spoke of the need for the company to "re-open the doors" to the markets in which it is losing ground. Elop also admitted that Nokia is facing increasing competition at the low end of the market from "Asia-based suppliers", although he stopped short of naming Chinese vendors ZTE and Huawei. The Finnish company is also facing growing competition from South Korean rival Samsung. Samsung shipped 80.7 million mobile devices in Q4, up 17% on-year, to claim a market share of 20.6%. "Samsung continues to edge ahead of LG and it is just 13 points behind Nokia, the closest it has ever been," Strategy Analytics noted. The firm added that Samsung recorded above average volume growth on demand for its expanded portfolio of Android-based smartphones. Indeed, on Friday the Korean vendor reported 12.6% growth in net profit in the fourth quarter, largely thanks to strong smartphone shipments. RIM recorded 36% year-on-year growth in Q4 with 14.6 million devices shipped, giving it an improved market share of 3.7% for the quarter and 3.6% for the full year. But fellow North American firm Motorola saw its full-year share shrink to just 2.7% from 4.7% with 37.2 million phones shipped worldwide. However, Q4 looked promising for Moto, with 11.3 million unit shipments, up 24% sequentially. "Tighter cost controls and stronger Android volumes enabled Motorola to eke out its first operating profit after an astonishing 14 quarters of losses," Strategy Analytics said. "Motorola's biggest challenge in 2011 remains the Apple iPhone CDMA version at Verizon Wireless, which we expect to ship several million units in its first year and place heavy pressure on Motorola and others." Finally, Sony Ericsson also saw its market share slip, claiming just 3.2% of unit shipments last year and only 2.8% in the final quarter. "Global handset shipments, turnover and ASPs were a little sluggish, due to volatile demand for its ageing 3G portfolio during the quarter," the analyst firm said.