Apple glided past Sony Ericsson and Motorola last year, as its mobile handset sales dominated 2.9 percent of the global market, according to data released today from Gartner.

Gartner announced that Apple sold 46.6 million units in 2010, an increase of 87.2 percent from 2009, when it sold 24.9 million.

"This growth is largely due to expansion into new countries and the ending of exclusivity deals, which has made the iPhone available through 185 communication service providers (CSPs) around the world," Gartner reported. That growth is only expected to continue in 2011, with the launch of the Verizon iPhone.

Overall, global mobile phone sales totaled 1.6 billion in 2010, up 31.8 percent from 2009, according to Garner, while smartphones sales were up 72.1 percent and accounted for 19 percent of total mobile sales.

Nokia remains the current top seller, with 461 million units sold and 28.9 percent of the market. That was a 7.5 percent drop in market share from 2009, and its smartphone share also dropped 6.7 percent.

"Nokia's future rests on the announcements it will make on Feb. 11 and how well the company can execute on those plans in the limited time available," Gartner said.

Ranking behind Nokia were Samsung, LG, Research in Motion, and Apple. Samsung had 17.6 percent of the global market, down from 19.5 percent in 2009, while LG had 7.1 percent - also a drop from 19.1 percent in 2009.

In the OS market, Android was the distinct champion- going from 2.9 percent of the OS market in 2009, to 22.7 percent last year, with 67 million Android units sold.