Smartphone shipments hit new record

Vendors shipped a record 54.5 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, 39 percent more than the 39.2 million shipped in the same quarter in 2008, according to IDC.

Four of the top five smartphone vendors bested their own shipment records for a single quarter. Apple boosted its place in the smartphone pack as sales of its iPhone smartphone increased by 98 percent over the 2008 fourth quarter. Apple now ships the third most smartphones, behind longtime leaders Nokia and Research in Motion. Ramon Llamas, an analyst at IDC, said vendor moves to cut prices helped to "create a perfect set of conditions to push shipments to a record level." The emergence of Google's Android and the Palm WebOS operating systems had a big impact on 2009 smartphone sales by offering users increased functionality.