Sales of smartphones increased by 85% in the first quarter compared to the same quarter last year, according to the London-based research firm.

"[The share of smartphone sales] could have been even higher, but manufacturers announced a number of high-profile devices during the first quarter of 2011 that would not ship until the second quarter of 2011. We believe some consumers delayed their purchases to wait for these models," Roberta Cozza, research analyst at Gartner, said in a statement.

The effect of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on the mobile communication devices market will be smaller than initially anticipated, Gartner said, and added that there currently is about six to seven weeks worth of inventory of finished products among resellers and distributors, and about four weeks worth of inventory for components.

As a result of the supply chain constraints in the wake of the earthquake in Japan, Gartner estimates that sales of mobile handsets to distributors and resellers will drop in the second quarter compared with the first quarter, with inventories being used up. Gartner said sales of mobile devices to end users will be flat in the second quarter compared with first quarter.

In the first quarter Nokia Corp. (NOK) sold 107.6 million mobile handsets to end users and thus had a 25.1% share of the total market, making it the world's largest handset maker by volume. In the first quarter last year, Nokia's market share was 30.6%.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE) retained its position as the world's second largest maker of mobile handsets by volume, with a market share of 16.1%, down from 18% the same quarter last year. Gartner said new devices and the company's expansion into emerging markets should improve Samsung's performance in the second quarter of 2011.

LG Electronics Inc. (066570.SE) had a market share of 5.6%, down from 7.6%, while Apple Inc. (AAPL) increased its market share to 3.9% from 2.3% the same quarter last year.

Google Inc.'s (GOOG) operating system Android was the largest operating system among smartphones sold in the first quarter, with a 36% market share, up from 9.6% last year. Meanwhile, Nokia's operating system Symbian decreased its market share to 27.4% from 44.2%, while Apple's mobile operating system iOS increased its market share to 16.8% from 15.3%.

By: DocMemory
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