Last month, Strategy Analytics calculated that global smartphone shipments had grown by 44% year-on-year to reach 117 million units in the third quarter of 2011, while total global handset shipments were up 14% to 390 million units. Samsung was the leading smartphone manufacturer, while Nokia was the overall largest mobile phone producer.

Now Gartner has released its calculations. It says worldwide sales of mobile devices were up 5.6% year-on-year to 440.5 million units, with 460 million units actually sold to retailers.

Sales of smartphones to end users reached 115 million units in Q3 2011, up 42% from the same period in 2010. Smartphone sales accounted for 26% of all mobile phone sales.

Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, said “Strong smartphone growth in China and Russia helped increase overall volumes in the quarter, but demand for smartphones stalled in advanced markets such as Western Europe and the U.S. as many users waited for new flagship devices featuring new versions of the key operating systems. Slowdowns also occurred in Latin America and the Middle East and Africa. Some consumers held off upgrading in the third quarter because they were waiting for promotions on other new high-end models that were launched in the run-up to the fourth quarter holiday season. Other consumers were waiting for a rumored new iPhone and associated price cuts on older iPhone models; this affected U.S. sales particularly.”

Gartner says Nokia continued to be the worldwide leader in mobile device sales with 23.9% of global sales, while Samsung became the top smartphone manufacturer with worldwide sales of 24 million. The Android OS accounted for 52.5% of smartphone sales, more than double the figure it achieved in Q3 2010.

[Report]