Canalys released its third-quarter findings for the global smartphone market. The research firm reported a modest uptick in smartphone shipments last quarter, the chief beneficiaries being the usual suspects.

It found that Global shipments grew by 4 percent to 41.4 million units from the same period a year ago, compared to the quicker 13 percent annual growth seen last quarter. Canalys blames a 6 percent fall in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) for the more modest uptick in shipments. By comparison, sales in North America grew by 5 percent and the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region saw a remarkable 26 percent rise after several flat quarters.

Nokia, RIM, Apple and HTC command over 80 percent of the market between them.

The Finnish phone giant retained its worldwide smartphone lead, with a share of 40 perecent—slightly up on its year-ago position, but down almost 5 percent from last quarter. RIM held onto second place with a largely unchanged ) share of 21 percent, while Apple reached a new high of 18 percent share in third, significantly up from the 14 percent it held in Q2, thanks mostly to an increase in supply of the iPhone 3GS.. HTC retained its fourth-place position with 5 percent share.

Looking at the market by operating system, Symbian's overall lead shrank as its share fell to 46 percent, ahead of RIM and Apple. Microsoft remained in fourth with its share dipping slightly below last quarter's previous low point of 9 percent. The proportion of smartphones running Google's Android OS climbed to almost 4 percent, from just under 3 percent in the second quarter.

Significantly, the proportion of smartphones with touchscreens reached 45 percent last quarter, up from 31 percent a year ago. Interestingly, more smartphones integrated GPS (80 percent) than Wi-Fi (75 percent) in the third quarter of 2009. Location-based services providers and application developers will be happy to hear that.

See here for more details from the Canalys report on third quarter smartphone shipments.