Market research firm Asymco says that Apple has passed Nokia in terms of mobile share. The big question is what exactly does “share” mean?

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]The author of the report, Horace Dediu, notes that there are many measurements of share these days. For example, there is the share of all handset units sold; share of installed based of handsets (penetration); share of smartphones; share of mobile computers; share of value (revenues) captured; share of profits; share of platforms; share within a given platform; and share by regions/countries/geographies/demographics.

Basically, there is a share for almost every measurement you can think of.

Dediu put together a composite index of four shares to measure performance for mobile phone manufacturers. He used share of all handset units sold (global); share of smartphones; share of value (revenues); and share of profits.

His findings:

• Apple and Nokia trading places
• Relative stability for Samsung
• A leveling off for RIM
• The Peaking for LG
• Very tightly coupled declines for Motorola and Sony Ericsson
• Gradual improvement in HTC