In Q3 2010, Apple entered for the first time in the top of the largest mobile phone manufacturers on the planet, in terms of sales. In Q4 2010, Apple remains at the top, but lost the 4th place to ZTE, which managed to sell 600.000 more terminals than Apple. The company succeeded to maintain in this top due to the 16.2 million iPhone terminals sold in the last quarter of 2010 and it will probably remain there in the company of big names such as: Nokia, Samsung, LG and ZTE which register the highest sales of low/mid-end terminals.
RIM did not manage to climb into the top 5, although it recorded a 35% increase in sales, and Steve Jobs' prediction from October came true. Apple will release the iPhone 4 CDMA next week, so the first quarter of 2011 is expected to be very interesting, but Apple has no way to climb above the 4th place because it has no mid/low-end phones available. So, in just 3 years, Apple managed to become one of the biggest sellers of mobile phones in the world, and as things stand, it has no intention of giving up this title any time soon.
