Sales of mobile phones in Q2 this year are up over 19% compared to last year (reports ABI Research). There are some slight changes, with Nokia and Samsung dropping share slightly, in part due to re-organisation for Nokia and the prevailing economic conditions hitting Samsung. The launch timing of the iPhone 4 hasn’t helped Apple, who also dropped market share. Mind you, with all sales up, that’s still more handsets sold by each company compared to the raw numbers from Q2 2009.

ABI Director Kevin Burden thinks the market is changing. “It is remarkable that the smartphone is starting to appeal to a very wide market cross-section. The smartphone is about to go multi-generational and the popularity of the number one handset form-factor, the (numeric keyed) ‘candy-bar’, could be waning.”

More at ABI Research.