Smartphone Sales Accounted for 55 per cent of Overall Mobile Phone Sales in Third Quarter of 2013: Gartner

More and more end users are opting for smartphones when they go out to buy a mobile phone. The sales of smartphones accounted for 55 per cent of overall mobile phone sales in the third quarter on 2013, according to Gartner.

Worldwide smartphone sales to end users reached 250.2 million units, up 45.8 percent from the third quarter of 2012. Asia/Pacific led the growth in both markets - the smartphone segment with 77.3 percent increase and the mobile phone segment with 11.9 percent growth.

“Sales of feature phones continued to decline and the decrease was more pronounced in markets where the average selling price (ASP) for feature phones was much closer to the ASP affordable smartphones,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner.

“In markets such as China and Latin America, demand for feature phones fell significantly as users rushed to replace their old models with smartphones,” he added.

Gartner analysts said global mobile phone sales are on pace to reach 1.81 billion units in 2013, a 3.4 percent increase from 2012.

Gartner analysts said global mobile phone sales are on pace to reach 1.81 billion units in 2013, a 3.4 percent increase from 2012.