Samsung Electronics Narrows Gap With Nokia. Increases Market Share To 30.5%.

Samsung Electronics’ share of the total  wireless handset market increased to 30.5 percent in the quarter, boosted by strong sales of mid-range phones, while market leader Nokia saw its share dipping to 35.3 percent.

“The gap between these two has been narrowing, and Nokia is facing a significant threat of being overtaken by Samsung in Western Europe in 2010,” Jeronimo said.

The West European home market has been the key for Finnish Nokia to build its global success, and investors are looking closely at Nokia’s market share development on the market.

Total cellphone sales in Western Europe rose 5 percent from a year ago to 46.8 million phones in the September quarter, increasing for the first time after five straight quarters of declines, IDC said.

Sales of smartphone rose 2 percent from the previous quarter, boosted by growing sales of Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s Blackberrys.