The rise in sales was driven by demand in emerging markets in Russian and China, while shipments in western Europe and the US stalled during the period, according to Gartner.The figure represented a 7% increase from the second quarter of the year and accounted for 26% of all mobile sales sold during the period, with total sales of 460m units.

Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, said the slowdown in the more traditionally developed markets was due to anticipation of devices in the final quarter.

“Many users waited for new flagship devices featuring new versions of the key operating systems [such as Apple’s iPhone 4S and Nokia’s Windows-based Lumia],” she said.

Samsung became the top smartphone manufacturer during the period as sales tripled year on year to reach 24m for the first time, ahead of Nokia in western Europe and Asia during the quarter.

Gartner attributed this to the strong performance of Samsung’s Galaxy and Nexus-branded smartphones, although it forecast more robust competition in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Apple shipped 17m iPhones, representing a 21% increase on the previous quarter, although a 3m decrease in shipments from the second quarter.

Android accounted for the majority of smartphone sales (52.5%) in the quarter, more than doubling its market share from the third quarter of 2010 (see chart below).

“Apple’s iOS market share suffered from delayed purchases as consumers waited for the new iPhone,” said Cozza. “Continued pressure is impacting RIM’s performance, and its smartphone share reached its lowest point so far in the US market, where it dropped to 10%.”