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Despite 100 percent year-over-year iPhone sales growth in its most recent quarter, Apple saw a 1.5 percent decrease in smartphone market share between the third and fourth quarter of 2009. This, according to an ABI document seen by the Wall Street Journal, came despite a 26 percent growth in the overall smartphone market during the same period. Although total market share dropped, Apple did sell 18 percent more iPhones in the fourth quarter than the third, according to the company’s fourth quarter earnings report.

To say that Apple did poorly during the quarter would be inaccurate—instead, while Apple did well, the overall smartphone market did better. Coincidentally Apple’s last drop in smartphone market share occurred in the fourth quarter of 2008, leading us to believe the drop may be related to the holiday season and customers giving less-expensive smartphones a shot in a poor economy.

Whether Apple’s market share will begin to increase during the first quarter of 2010 remains to be seen. As noted by Mobile Tech Today, Nokia’s Ovi Store’s growth in Asia-Pacific and Latin America may mean that the company could see accelerated growth in the coming quarters. It doesn’t seem that Apple has anything to worry about at the moment, but the company will need to stay on its toes if it wants to stay at the front of the pack.

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