The study by U.K. market research firm Canalys said that more than 12 million data-ready wireless mobile devices shipped in the quarter compared to less than six million a year ago. Nokia, which already was the leading vendor a year ago, saw its worldwide market share increase dramatically from 33.2 percent to 54.9 percent, according to the study.
That increase was taken out of the hide of Microsoft and Palm, according to Canalys. Despite increased overall sales, sales wireless devices from Palm remained essentially unchanged from last year, keeping Palm in second place with an 8.7 percent market share. Big gainers were third-place Research In Motion (RIM) and fourth-place Motorola, according to Canalys. RIM's sales increased 84 percent while Motorola's increased 637 percent.
The firm credited Motorola's strong performance because of strong inroads into the Chinese and Japanese markets.
Overall, the Symbian platform increased its worldwide lead with a 62.8 percent market share compared to 41 percent the year before. Microsoft is in second place but saw its market share erode from 22.9 percent to 15.9 percent, according to Canalys. Third-place PalmSource saw its market share decline from 22.5 percent to 9.5 percent.
Canalys includes in its tally so-called "feature phones," which are not as powerful as smartphones in terms of connecting to desktop applications. It also includes wireless handhelds but not handhelds that don't have wireless connectivity.