With the end of year figures for 2010 just released, a number of interesting facts have appeared:

1. 101 million smartphones were sold world wide in the last quarter of 2010 – more than PCs – this is the first time that they have overtaken PC usage
2. Google’s Android, as implemented by the likes of Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG is now the single most popular operating system for smartphones, overtaking Nokia’s Symbian
3. Nokia remains the largest smartphone manufacturer taking 28% of the market share (up from 20% previously)
4. Apple have overtaken RIM’s BlackBerry with a 16% share of the smartphone market, and are now second place to Nokia
5. Apple has a market share of 5% of all mobile handsets, but makes half of all the profit

All interesting stuff, but what does it mean? Firstly, Nokia are by no means out of the running. A number of new handsets and their new operating system has kept them in the running. Whilst Apple is popular in some territories, in other parts of the world Samsung and HTC rule. As a result Android has become the larges smartphone OS out there. In the end though, Apple probably aren’t looking to take the largest market share. They are highly influential and significantly, far more profitable than anyone else. They are probably very happy with their 5% market share.