In its third quarterly report, Apple reported that it has shipped more iPhone units in 2010 as compared to both Blackberry and RIM. Until now, Research in Motion (RIM) was much ahead of Apple, but the latter has successfully surpassed it in global smartphone sales.

Undoubtedly, Nokia is the leader in the Global smartphone market, Apple has made a significant growth from 17.0 to 18.3 this year. The number of devices shipped during the year by Apple is 14.5 million and that of RIM is 12.3 million. Nokia remains the unbeatable leader with shipment of 26.5 million devices in 2010. Besides, the Blackberry’s share also declined from 19.6 to 16.1 percent. Apple has also raised its target share price to $421, calling itself “unbeatable”.

Analyst Micheal Walkley said simply “We agree with his views,” referring to Jobs’ claim that “we’ve now passed RIM and I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future.”

It cannot be said whether Apple will remain unbeatable in following years, but one thing that cannot be ignored is the tremendous progress made by it during the past five years. So, we can hope for the similar situation in future too!

This is perhaps something Jobs can throw back at RIM, as the two companies have been sparring since Apple’s press event earlier this week.  Also, see here for some interesting stats on the growth of the mobile ad industry.  Android recently bypassed Apple’s lead in Millenial Media’s network.