Third-quarter reports from Gartner and IDC show that the smartphone market is alive and well — indeed, very well — despite the poor economy.

Gartner, which released its report Thursday, said mobile-phone sales ticked up .01 percent compared to last year’s third quarter, finishing at 308.9 million units. The numbers would have been considerably worse whether the smartphone category hadn’t saved the day: The number of smartphones sold increased 12.8 percent compared to the year-ago quarter, totaling more than 41 million units.

Gartner’s smartphone numbers, which were included in a report on the overall status of mobile devices, showed no change in position among the top five players. However, the market share of these players has changed, in some cases dramatically.

Gartner: Nokia Still on Top

Leader Nokia saw its slice of the smartphone pie recede from 42.3 percent to 39.3 percent. BlackBerry, which is made by Research In Motion, rose nearly five percent — from

15.9 percent to 20.8 percent. Apple rode the coattails of the iPhone to a 17.1 percent share, easily beating the 12.9 percent it held during last year’s third quarter. HTC rose from 4.5 percent to 6.5 percent, and Samsung was up a bit, from three percent to 3.2 percent.

Perhaps most interesting is that customers are migrating toward the big five, as the “others” category slipped eight percentage points, from 21.3 percent to 13.1 percent.

IDC: Big Gain for RIM’s BlackBerry

IDC reported its quarterly smartphone numbers last week. The firm said 43.3 million units were shipped, a 4.2 percent increase from the 41.5 million units shipped during last year’s third quarter and 3.2 percent more than the 41.9 million units shipped in the second quarter.

The numbers were about what IDC expected, said Ramon Llamas, the senior research analyst for mobile devices. “I think they are on a very…

Original post by dhiram