In a new report released by Gartner, it notes that Research In Motion has reached 20 per cent share in worldwide smartphones sale thanks to Curve 8900 in Europe and the Tour and Storm 2 with Verizon Wireless in the US. Gartner notes that RIM’s sale volumes in Latin America were driven by pre-paid sales and more flexible BlackBerry Internet Service offerings.

But what is more interesting to note is that Apple is fast catching up with 17.1 % share of the market with the sale of around 7 million units of iPhone in the third quarter of 2009.

Company	3Q09 Sales	3Q09 Market Share (%)	3Q08 Sales	3Q08 Market Share (%)
Nokia	16,156.4	39.3	15,472.3	42.3
Research in Motion	8,522.7	20.8	5,800.4	15.9
Apple	7,040.4	17.1	4720.3	12.9
HTC	2,659.5	6.5	1,656.3	4.5
Samsung	1,320.6	3.2	1,114.8	3.0
Others	5,368.0	13.1	7,793.3	21.3
Total	41,067.6	100.0	3    6,557.4	100.0

TABLE:Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users in 3Q09 (Thousands of Units)

Read the full report

• Smartphones sales grew 12.7 precent in First Quarter of 2009
• BlackBerry beats iPhone to the top of Smartphone Ranking
• Apple iPhone 3G sales surpass RIM’s Blackberry
• RIM plans next-gen Blackberry Storm
• Apple iPhone Highest in Overall Smartphone Customer Satisfaction