It looks like Apple’s venture into the mobile phone biz is finally paying some dividends as they’ve managed to dislodge RIM from the no. 2 spot as far as 3rd quarter smartphone sales are concerned.

Apple had 17.3 % market share which was good enough to beat RIM’s 15.2%. Nokia is still at the top of the pack with 38.9% which was 12.5% lower than their performance last year. Microsoft was likewise booted out of the top three and is now in fourth spot with just 13.6% market share. Another interesting statistic for Q3 was the rise in smartphone sales despite the slowdown in the regular mobile phone market. The cellphone market growth was down to just 3% while smartphone sales grew to 28% from a year ago amounting to 40M units.

Will Apple make it to the top spot? I highly doubt it and even with their brilliant performance in Q3, their current position isn’t the safest of leads. Considering that the BlackBerry Bold has yet to become available, RIM may still have what it takes to outperform Apple in the last quarter of 2008.

Based on the results of Q3 sales, it seems that the smartphone industry is a worthy business to get into, and despite its exclusivity and relatively high price, the iPhone is still a huge cash cow. I wonder if Apple will consider releasing other variants of the iPhone to further improve on their mobile phone standing. How about an iPhone Nano, perhaps? It’s highly unlikely, but just some food for thought to ponder on.