Apple is now the world’s third largest Smartphone vendor

The success of its iPhone 4S pushed Apple ahead of LG, closing a great year in which they grabbed 9% of the global mobile market share, according to a recent study published by the International Data Corporation (IDC).

Apple recorded an impressive 128.4% growth on a year-over-year basis, the numbers reveal. We have learned from the company’s quarterly earnings that sales skyrocketed (mainly due to the holiday season and the October release of the iPhone 4S), but that covered only a 98-day period.

Looking back to Q4 of 2011, Apple’s global mobile phone market share more than doubled: the IDC report shows Apple’s iPhone accounted for 4% of the global market back in 2010, which placed the Cupertino-based company in fifth place. The latest study shows that the success of the iPhone brought another 4.7% of the global market share, which now totals 8.7%. In other words, Apple surpassed LG and ZTE, and is challenging Samsung and Nokia, companies that retain the highest percentage of the market.

Apple’s 2011 Q4 helped the ranking, of course, with the company selling 37 million iPhones. One of the key reasons for its success, was that it made the device available in 90 countries, which rapidly boosted sales and balanced the numbers for Apple.

The results published by IDC are very important for Apple, as their iPhone’s managed to grab a relatively high percentage of the total of 427.4 million units shipped in the fourth quarter of 2011 globally. The total number of mobile units is 6.1% higher than a year ago, better than the forecasted 4.4% global growth, but less than the 9.3% growth recorded during the previous quarter.

“The mobile phone market exhibited unusually low growth last quarter, which shows it is not immune to weaker macroeconomic conditions worldwide,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker. “The introduction of high-growth products such as the iPhone 4S, which shipped in the fourth quarter, bolstered Smartphone growth. Yet overall market growth fell to its lowest point since Q3 2009, when the global economic recession was in full bloom.”

Nokia maintained its position as the market leader, shipping 113.5 million units during the 98-day quarter, and grabbing 26.6% of the global market share. This percentage, however, is lower than the previous year, when Nokia mobile units accounted for 30.7% of the global market.

On the other hand, Samsung followed Nokia as it broke the 300 million market for the first time in a single year. If Samsung continues to grow at this pace, it will dethrone Nokia, as the difference between the two companies’ fourth quarter shipments is 15.9 million units.

LG dropped to fourth place, as its total sales volume declined 42.2% on a year-over-year basis.

The IDC’s figures include both Smartphones and feature phones, they note. While the feature-phone sales give Nokia first position, studies analyzing the Smartphone sales alone give Apple the title of the world’s number one Smartphone vendor.