The third quarter of 2011 was the second lowest quarter in growth rate for mobile phone sale during the last two years. The main reason is attributed to the long waiting by the public for the release of 'iPhone 4S' and 'BlackBerry 7 series' phones.

The United States and Western Europe which are economically sound suffered maximum due to low sale during the last couple of years.

Nokia could sell 106.6 million units in the quarter which is about 27.1% of the total, which is less than that in the third quarter of the previous year, but more than that in the previous quarter. Nokia managed this much of sales by clearing the backlogs of the previous year in certain European countries and China.

Samsung recorded double digit growth and was the second highest in sales among all. The main sale was in smartphones, especially 'Galaxy S II'. Most of the sale was in emerging markets including China. Samsung's share was 22.3% which amounts to 87.8 million units, which is less than that of Nokia. Samsung's performance was also better than its previous quarter performance and that in the third quarter of the previous year.

LG Electronics managed to retain its number 3 position, which is not disturbed for the last three years. But it suffered reduction in sales compared to the previous quarter as well as that in the same quarter last year. There is every chance that its number 3 position may be disturbed as Apple is growing strong.

ZTE takes the forth position presently. North American countries and China were the real markets for the phones.

The fifth position is held by Apple. The sale of iPhone during the quarter was not up to expectation. Incidentally Steve Jobs had handed over the responsibility of the company to Tim Cook. The reason for the low sale is because the public waited long for the release of 'iPhone 4 S'.

It has been talked that iPhone 4S will be the supreme phone for sometime and that it will be widely accepted throughout the world. However as per the current figures, 17.1 million units were sold this quarter, which is just 4.3% of the share. The figure was 4% during the previous year. However it is smaller than the sale of previous quarter which was 5.6%