MacMall 96 Hour Apple Sale“Apple’s iPhone could become Britain’s best-selling smartphone, market watcher Canalys has claimed – and it’s all due to the end of O2′s exclusive on the handset,” Tony Smith reports for Register Hardware.

“Speaking at the Canalys Mobility Forum in London yesterday, analyst Pete Cunningham revealed that the iPhone was France’s favourite smartphone in Q3 2009,” Smith reports. “That, he said, arose because of the ending there of single-carrier sales. And with that now happening in the UK too – Orange has the 3GS and Vodafone will begin offering it early next year – we could see a big increase in iPhone ownership [in the UK], too.”

“In Europe, the Middle East and Africa during Q3, Apple took 17 percent of the smartphone market, second only to Nokia, which took 57.5 percent. But Nokia’s unit shipments were down 10.4 percent year on on year – Apple’s were up 22.5 percent,” Smith reports. “Third-placed Rim saw even better year-on-year growth: 100.1 percent. But it accounted for just 12.3 percent of the market during the quarter, Cunningham said. HTC followed in fourth place with a 7.2 per cent share.”

Full article here.