Latest figures from IDC show Western European shipments up 26 per cent in 4Q08.
IDC's European Mobile Phone Tracker says 9.3 million smartphones were shipped during 4Q08, up 25.9 per cent from a year earlier.For the full year, IDC says 31.9 million smartphones shipped, representing a 36.1 per cent increase from 2007.
The research giant attributes the growth to the sheer volume of device launches during the period, including the BlackBerry Storm, BlackBerry Bold, T-Mobile G1 and the HTC Touch HD.
In addition, IDC says other devices that launched in previous quarters become popular as prices came down in Q4. These included the Nokia E71, Samsung Omnia, Sony Ericsson X1, iPhone 3G and Samsung Omnia.
In terms of 2008 smartphone market share, Nokia is the firm leader and accounted for 53.6 per cent of European shipments in 4Q08, followed by RIM, Apple, HTC and Samung (see table below).
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Francisco Jeronimo research manager with IDC's European Mobile Phone Devices and Trends, said: "The good performance of this segment is a very good sign of opportunities from which vendors and operators could profit in light of the slowdown in the overall mobile phones market.
"Every economic crisis culminates in lower consumer spending to some extent, but is this market fall a consequence of less money or simply because devices are no longer attractive enough to keep replacement rates high?"
Western European Smartphone Market Share, 2008
Company, Shipments, Share
Nokia, 16.98m, 53.2%
RIM, 3.80m, 11.9%
Apple, 3.57m, 11.2%
HTC, 2.77m, 8.7%
Samsung, 1.38m, 4.3%
Others, 3.43m, 10.8%
Source: IDC
