Android may be beating the iPhone when it comes to smartphone market share, but Apple is still managing to outpace Android manufacturers when it comes to sales.

In terms of wholesale revenue, Apple grabbed the lion’s share of smartphone sales in 2010 with a 29 percent market share, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics. In terms of shipment volume, Apple held just 16 percent of the market, but the price on the iPhone made up the difference in market share when it came to sales volume.

Nokia’s share of global smartphone revenues came in at 20 percent and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) held a 15 percent share. Samsung’s successful lineup of Android smartphones helped it surpass HTC with 9 percent of smartphone market revenue.

Although Apple, Nokia and RIM held their positions at the top of global smartphone sales, Android’s popularity did appear to have some effect. The dominance of the top three OEMs weakened in the fourth quarter to a combined revenue share of 61 percent, from 72 percent during the same period in 2009, said Strategy Analytics Associate Director Martin Bradley in the firm’s report. For the full year 2010, Apple, Nokia and RIM accounted for 64 percent of smartphone sales.

Strategy Analytics also provided some interesting numbers on the importance of smartphone sales to the overall handset market. Smartphones accounted from just 22 percent of the handset market last year in terms of volume, but comprised more than 50 percent of the market in terms of wholesale revenue.

“This illustrates how important the smartphone market has become for capturing mobile handset value,” said Tom Kang, director of Strategy Analytics’ wireless smartphone strategies service, in the report. “Unlike feature phones, smartphone average sales prices have held steady in the $300 range during 2010, bolstered by the introduction of new technology, such as the Retina LCD and AMOLED displays, as well as high speed 1 GHz processors.”