Global shipments of smartphones continue to rise as in the first quarter of 2010 global smartphone shipments hit 55 million which was a year on year growth of 67% reports Canalys according to an article over on After Dawn.

In Europe the strongest presence and the largest share belongs to Nokia with 21,429,680 handsets shipped which is 38.8% and a year on year shipment growth of 56.6%.

BlackBerry maker, Research In Motion commands a large presence in the United States shipping some 10,589,260 handsets which is a growth of 45% year on year with 15.9% of the market.

iPhone maker Apple comes in next with the largest growth at 130.8% shipping 8.72 million iPhones giving 15.9% of the market. Followed by HTC with 5.1% of the market and Motorola with 4.7% of the market, while the remaining 16.3% is accounted for by LG, Samsung and Sony.