Market research firm Canalys reports that the EMEA smart mobile device (defined as smart phones and wireless handhelds) market continues to grow but at a rate much slower than last year. In Q3 2006, shipments grew 11.7 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago. Nokia retained its lead. HTC took second place (with a 279 percent growth), ahead of RIM which grew about 10 percent. Sony Ericsson was in fourth, reentering the top five, with new Symbian models and HP was fifth.
Not surprising is the fact that the traditional unconnected handheld market shrunk by 42.7 percent to a level not seen since 2002 (compared to a 42.7 percent growth for converged devices). In turn, this has led to Microsoft seeing its share of the market drop from 18 percent a year ago to 16.9 percent this quarter. With Windows Mobile converged devices growing at 80 percent year-over-year, you can expect Microsoft to bounce back fairly quickly.