Up from 102m in 2010.
Researcher IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker report says smartphone shipments grew by 54.7 per cent year-on-year, which was higher than both the predicted 40 per cent growth and the 49.2 per cent rise in Q3.
102 million devices were shipped in Q4 2010, which grew to 157.8 per cent in Q4 2011. Meanwhile, total shipments for 2011 reached 491.4 million units, which is up by 61.3 per cent from 304.7 million units in 2010.
Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team, says: "By the end of the quarter, one out of every three mobiles phones shipped worldwide was a smartphone.
"The launch of Apple's iPhone 4S played a key role in smartphone growth to capture pent-up demand, and smartphone launches from other vendors also provided a broad selection to meet varying preferences and budgets."
'Hero' devices such as the Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4S supported the shipment increase, while low-end sub $250 Android devices also made a significant contribution, according to the report.
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Additionally, Apple led sales on Q4 with the highest shipment volume of 37 million iPhones, while Samsung passed the 30 million mark for the first time finishing 2011 as the overall smartphone leader.
Further results show Nokia had the largest year-on-year decrease, though its new WinPho project has been reported to have shipped over one million Lumia devices.
RIM launched its BB OS 7 smartphones in new markets, which prevented a consistent quarterly decline, while HTC shipped lower volumes compared to the previous quarter.
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