According to the latest figures from Gartner, after declining sales during last year the mobile phone market is once again on the up for Q1 of 2010 with the biggest market share gains garnered by the iPhone and Android, being the only 2 in the top 5 for gain year over year.

An article over on Arstechnica posted by Chris Foresman says that global mobile handset vendors sold some 314.7 million phones in Q1 which is a 16.9% rise from last year. With little year over year change, Nokia, Samsung and LG continued to snatch most of the market while several other vendors fought over small areas of the remaining market share.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion managed to grab fourth place worldwide as Motorola and Sony Ericsson tasted large falls in market share, which has made Research In Motion the first smartphone only vendor to break into the top 5.

Overall, Apple and their iPhone slipped in at 7th place by more than doubling their Q1 shipments when compared to 2009 and grabbing 2.7% of the market with Gartner research VP Caroline Milanesi in a statement said that “Growth came partly from new communication service providers in established markets, such as the UK, and stronger sales in new markets such as China and South Korea.”

Amongst smartphone platforms, Symbian still commands but continued to fall by losing 4.5 points per share, while losing 1 point year over year BlackBerry holds onto the number 2 slot, and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile also dropped a few points.

Worldwide smartphone sales grew with 54.3 million handsets sold which gives a 48.7% increase year over year and smartphones now represent some 17.3% of all mobile sales which is an increase from 13.6% of Q1 2009.