According to a Wednesday report by IT research and analyst firm Gartner, while the sales of mobile phones reported a drop in this year's first quarter, the ongoing downturn failed to dampen the global sales of smartphones - with Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) driving growth in the smartphone market.

Both Apple and RIM posted an increase in their overall market share for the year, pertaining to smartphones. RIM's market share leaped from 13.3 percent to 19.9 percent, and Apple's market share rose from 5.3 percent to 10.8 percent. Surprisingly for some, the 7.2 million units sales of the BlackBerry-maker RIM outpaced the 3.9 million iPhones sales of Apple.

Despite the fact that smartphones sales constitute only about 13.5 percent of total mobile devices sales, the growth in smartphone market, even amid recession indicates the built-up consumer demand for superior-functioning devices, though their high price might just stand in the way of future growth in difficult times!

Talking about the consumers' preference for high-end devices, Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner, said: "Much of the smartphone growth during the first quarter of 2009 was driven by touch-screen products. 'Touch' was enough of a driver in the mid-tier space, but tighter integration with applications and services around music, mobile e-mail and Internet browsing made the difference at the high end of the market."