Let’s break these sales stats down by continent. Asia excluding Japan first:

1. Nokia: 75%
2. Apple: 8%
3. HTC: 6%
4. RIM: 4%
5. Samsung: 3%
6. Motorola: 2%

Western Europe:

1. Nokia: 48%
2. Apple: 20%
3. RIM: 15%
4. HTC: 10%
5. Samsung: 5%
6. SonyEricsson: 1%

Finally North America:

1. RIM: 51%
2. Apple: 29%
3. HTC: 6%
4. Palm: 5% (probably includes PalmOS devices)
5. Nokia: 4%
6. Samsung: 2%
7. Sharp: 1%

Apple is second in every market, but the least difference with the market leader is 22% in North America.

Source: Morgan Stanley Mobile Internet Report (48Meg PDF) p. 160

North Americans are parochial in their choice of a smartphone. One more reason why the North American market has zero predictive value for the rest of the world.

Oddly, Europeans buy relatively more Asian smartphones, while Asians buy relatively more European smartphones.

The Japanese market is so very different from all the others that I left it out. Besides, a full 20% of Japanese smartphone sales fall in an unspecified “others” category. Apple is fourth with 10% of sales.

The Japanese are even more parochial than the Americans when it comes to selecting a smartphone, but that’s partly caused by the unique shape the mobile space has in that country. None of the Western manufacturers has truly created an inroad in the most advanced mobile market in the world.

Incidentally, the Japanese market does have predictive value for the rest of the world, but it’s sometimes so advanced that it’s hard to understand.

Blazing commentary on QuirksBlog. Good perspective, too — few people I know even know that Nokia still has a market in the U.S.