"Green shoots are sprouting," declared Jake Saunders, ABI Research vice president. ABI had forecast shipments of 253 million devices, but that number was exceeded by 5 million.

Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Technologies Inc. made the healthiest gains, reaching 17.8% and 8.8% of the total share of the market, while Research in Motion Ltd. grew to 3% due to the success of the BlackBerry Bold, said ABI analyst Kevin Burden.

Apple's market share was 1.5%, which Burden said "is a little curious" because he expected it to be higher with the popularity of the App Store and the iPhone 3G. Increased competition in the touchscreen segment of the market may be a factor, he said.

Both Nokia and Sony Ericsson saw their shares drop to 36.2% and 5.6% respectively. Nokia's fortunes could improve with the release of the , ABI said in a statement, and it has already seen a "fair amount of success" with the .

Given the likelihood unemployment rates will continue to climb, ABI urged the mobile device industry to be cautious about increasing inventories, despite the better-than-expected first-quarter numbers.