Apple had a great second quarter as it struggled to keep iPhones in stock and maintained third place in global smartphone sales. According to a report from market research firm Gartner, Apple has seen the largest gains in the smartphone market, shipping more than 5.4 million of their popular handset in the second quarter of 2009 compared to 892,000 in the same quarter last year.
Gartner believes that the combination of Apple broadening its horizons and lowering the cost of its 8GB iPhone 3G had a clear effect on sales volumes. Cupertino shipped more iPhone 3GS handsets during its weekend launch in June of this year than it sold for the entire second quarter of 2008. A few weeks ago, it acknowledged this staggering demand and revealed plans to launch the device in 20 more countries this month.
The successful quarter has bumped Apple's share of the smartphone market to 13.3% from 2.8% in the year-ago quarter. Nokia claimed the number one position with a 45% market share in the recent quarter, down 2.4% from 2008. Blackberry-maker Research In Motion came in at number two holding 18.7% of the share, HTC was listed at number four with 6%, and Fujitsu with 3%.