BlackBerry and Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) improved their rankings in the first quarter among the top 10 global cell phone makers, a market research firm reported Monday.

RIM and Apple rose to the fifth and sixth slots, respectively, and were the only companies whose smartphone brands saw an increase in shipments from the fourth quarter of 2009, iSuppli said. RIM's BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone product lines were ranked eighth and ninth, respectively, in the previous quarter.

In contrast, Motorola posted a 29.2% decline in mobile phone shipments quarter to quarter, to 8.5 million units from 12 million units. The drop caused the company's ranking to slide two positions to eighth place, iSuppli said.

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— Antone Gonsalves, InformationWeek