120m smartphones were shipped in Q3 2011, up 49% Y-o-Y

"Canalys today released its Q3 2011 country-level smart phone shipment estimates to clients, revealing that HTC has taken the top spot in the US market. At the same time, a particularly strong performance from Samsung saw it become the world’s number one smart phone vendor. Overall, the worldwide market grew substantially: 49% year-on-year to 120.4 million units.
With phenomenal year-on-year and sequential growth of 252% and 60% respectively, Samsung shipped 27.3 million smart phones under its own brand to capture a 23% share, becoming the number one vendor in APAC, Western Europe and Latin America, ahead of Nokia, Apple and RIM respectively. With well-regarded products, such as the Galaxy S II, and significant marketing campaigns, the vendor registered the second highest quarterly shipment total in the market’s history, behind only Nokia’s Q4 2010 performance. In addition, Samsung shipped an estimated 500,000 units worldwide under the Google and T-Mobile brands.
In the United States, the world’s largest smart phone market, HTC shone in Q3 2011, edging out Apple and Samsung to become the leading vendor. HTC shipped 5.7 million smart phones in the US under its own brand, giving it almost a quarter of the market, as well as an estimated 70,000 units under the T-Mobile brand. ‘However you count it, HTC has become a deserved leader in the US smart phone market,’ said Palo Alto-based Canalys Vice President and Principal Analyst, Chris Jones. ‘This is an awesome achievement for HTC, which has built a premium brand in a highly competitive market in just a few short years. It now has a strong range of 4G Android products, with devices ranged by each of the major carriers, and offers some of the most compelling and differentiated products found on the platform today.’"

Source:  Press release from Canalys, 31st October 2011