Global smart phone sales nearly doubled in the third quarter, and Apple is now one of the top five bestselling manufacturers.
Research firm Gartner says cell phone manufacturers sold 80.5 million smart phones in the third quarter. It says nearly 1 in 5 of all phones sold is a smart phone.
Although Nokia Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and LG Corp. maintained their rankings as the top three cell phone makers, Apple Inc. broke into the top five for the first time with its iPhone. It has surpassed BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. for fourth place.
However, the iPhone is not the most popular smart phone. Phones running Symbian software, which comes loaded on many Nokia devices, are the most common, followed by phones running Google Inc.’s Android software.
