Growth in the EMEA smart mobile device market in Q3 rose slightly from the previous quarter, but remains well below the 100%-plus rates seen for most of last year.

Nokia remained on top of the smartphone market in Q3, thanks largely through shipments of its consumer-focused Symbian S60 devices. Researchers Canalys gives it a 75% share, way ahead of the pack.

HTC, in second place, was by far the fastest growing of the leading vendors and remained narrowly ahead of third-placed RIM for the second quarter running (HTC shipments don’t include phones branded by network operators, which are tracked individually).

With new UIQ models shipping last quarter, Sony Ericsson re-entered the top five after a long absence. That helped to take Symbian’s market share up to 78.7% from 76.6% a year earlier.

Microsoft’s overall share of slipped to 16.9%, down from 18% a year ago.

• Smartphone sales almost tripled from 2004 to 2005, and increased by 50% in the first half of 2006 over 2005, reports In-Stat. But according to In-Stat analyst Bill Hughes, “many smartphone users continue to carry the very devices that smartphones are meant to replace. Also, users have been slow to add new applications to their devices. Most users have only downloaded a few applications.” In-Stat research indicates that business users who received their smartphone through work are three times more likely to carry a second wireless phone for personal calls than other users.