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Total Telecom: Smartphones drive handset sales surge - Gartner

RIM, Apple increase market share while Nokia's slides.

Global sales of mobile handsets surged 17% in the first quarter driven by rising demand for smartphones that also saw Research In Motion Ltd. and Apple Inc grow market share at the expense of Nokia Corp., IT research firm Gartner Inc.'s latest market survey showed Wednesday.

Apart from smartphones, a rise in sales of cheaper, unbranded whitebox handsets in some emerging markets such as India, also helped drive mobile phone sales in the quarter, according to the research firm. Gartner now expects global mobile phone sales to grow between 13% and 15% compared to its previous prediction of a rise of 11%, driven notably by stronger white-box sales, Milanesi said.

Smartphones sales outpaced overall market growth in the first quarter, rising 49% to 54.3 million units - their strongest year-on-year increase since 2006, Gartner said.

Due to the success of smartphones, which are becoming more affordable, Blackberry-maker RIM was among the top-five mobile handset vendors for the first time with a market share of 3.4% compared with 2.7% in the same quarter a year ago.

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