Proving once again that voice communications still rules, Nokia dominated the worldwide mobile device market during the second quarter, according to research firm Canalys.

While Nokia impressed with a 33 percent share when smartphones and PDAs are combined, it truly wows when it becomes apparent that it accounted for 80 percent of all Symbian devices, the most popular smartphone platform.

As it turns out, Symbian is the most commonly used mobile device platform period, netting 63 percent of the market.

In addition to doing well in traditional stomping grounds like Europe, Nokia performed better in North America last quarter, as it took advantage of palmOne's difficulty in keeping up with demand for its hugely popular Treo 600 smartphone.

Canalys Senior Analyst Chris Jones said if palmOne "can solve these (supply problems) then its numbers will improve, but it also needs a broader selection of devices to appeal to a wider range of customers…palmOne cannot afford to underestimate the momentum of Symbian."

Perhaps palmOne's next generation Treo, rumored to be coming in the Fall, will prove to be that device.

Only Linux-based handhelds, such as Sharp's Zaurus line, grew at a faster rate (94 percent) than Symbian smartphones, moving up to a still paltry 2.0 percent of the market.

Microsoft-based mobile devices climbed to number two in the platform wars with 23 percent of the market, growing a robust 47 percent, while the Palm OS, as represented by PalmSource, grew at a much weaker 5 percent. This accounts for Palm devices falling to number three with 22.5 percent of total shipments.

Even so, palmOne, the largest PalmSource licensee, maintained the number two ranking for device manufactures behind Nokia with 18 percent of the market. While it increased shipments by 15 percent, palmOne's market share nevertheless dropped by 2.7 percent.

Archrival Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft's most successful licensee, held steady as the third best-selling mobile device vendor by upping shipments by 40 percent, maintaining a consistent 9 percent of the market.

Research In Motion (RIM) moved into fourth place ahead of Sony Ericsson by growing shipments year-over-year an astounding 333 percent. Its overall share jumped from 2.7 percent to 8.2 percent.

These numbers jibe with similar findings Gartner published last week. Gartner determined that RIM shipments rose 289 percent last quarter.

Most analysts agree this growth resulted from wider adoption of the BlackBerry platform's famous "push" e-mail capabilities, as well as a steady increase in the number of third-party applications and wireless data services available to BlackBerry users.