Samsung’s smartphone marketshare now double Apple’s, while Nokia slumps below RIM, ZTE and HTC

Samsung now sells more than two smartphones for every iPhone sold by Apple, while Nokia is no longer among the world’s top five smartphone manufacturers, according to a new IDC report.

According to Tom’s Hardware, mobile phone shipments grew by just 2.4% year-on-year, with 444.5 million units shipped during the third quarter of this year, compared to 434.1 million for the same quarter last year.

Of that total, smartphone shipments were 179.7 million units during the third quarter, up from 123.7 million on a year-on-year basis.

Samsung led the smartphone market with 56.3 million units, representing a marketshare of 31.3%, more than doubling Apple’s 26.9 million units and 15% marketshare.

The top five largest smartphone vendors also included BlackBerry-maker RIM with 7.7 million units, ZTE with 7.5 million units and HTC with 7.3 million units.

Nokia is no longer listed among the top five smartphone vendors, having fallen from 29% marketshare in the fourth-quarter of 2010 when current CEO Stephen Elop took control of the company.