Gartner research shows the iPhone now has 17% of the smartphone market worldwide. That’s a huge jump from only 12.9% a year ago. Nokia is still on top with 39%, but that’s down from 42% last year. Research in Motion is in second place with 20.8% of the market. Interestingly enough, however, Internet Ad Sales reports that the iPhone has passed RIM in western Europe. HTC is fourth, but showed a strong gain over last year. Apple’s numbers should be even stronger in the fourth-quarter reports as Apple begins sales in China and 16 other countries.

Gartner research director Carolina Milanesi said, "The third quarter of 2009 saw the announcement of many new mobile devices, including several Android smartphones ready for the holiday season in the fourth quarter, but hardware commoditization and the growth in open platforms will make it harder for them to stand out."

Gartner said the average selling price of the iPhone was expected to hold firm, which is good news for Apple since the average selling price indicates a predominance of high-end 3GS models. From an operating system standpoint, Android is still only at 3.5% and Windows Mobile numbers continued to decline.