Sales in the final three months of the year rose 8.3% to 340 million units compared to fourth quarter 2008.
"The mobile devices market finished the year on a very positive note, driven by growth in smartphones and low-end devices," Gartner research director Carolina Milanesi said in a statement. The 2009 yearly decline was nonetheless sharper than a December prediction from Gartner for a fall of 0.7%.
"We can expect 2010 to retain a strong focus around operating systems, services and applications while hardware takes a back seat," Milanesi said.
"Sales will return to low double-digit growth, but competition will continue to put a strain on vendors' margins."
Sales of smartphones, which offer users a variety of multimedia options, jumped 41.1% to 53.8 million units in the fourth quarter and were up 23.8% to 172.4 million devices for the full year.
The Canadian group RIM, which markets the Blackberry, controlled 19.9% of the smartphone market while Apple, with its iPhone, had a market share of 14.4%.
Overall, three of the five leading mobile phone makers, Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson, suffered a sales decline last year.
Market share fell to 36.4% from 38.6% at Nokia, to 4.8% from 8.7% at Motorola and to 4.5% from 7.6% at Sony Ericsson.
The world's number two mobile phone company, Samsung, saw its market share increase to 19.5% from 16.3% in 2008.
At LG, also South Korean, market share rose to 10.1% from 8.4%.
Source: AFP
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