Smartphone Sales Have Now Overtaken Feature Phones

Though tablet sales slowed during the second quarter of 2013, smartphone sales are still going strong. One analyst’s new numbers have shown that smartphones are now selling more worldwide that f...
Smartphone Sales Have Now Overtaken Feature Phones
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  • Though tablet sales slowed during the second quarter of 2013, smartphone sales are still going strong. One analyst’s new numbers have shown that smartphones are now selling more worldwide that feature phones.

    Analyst firm Gartner today released estimates showing that smartphone sales reached 225 million units worldwide during the second quarter of 2013, up 46.5% from the same quarter last year. This number also represents over half of the 435 total mobile phone units sold during the second quarter. Feature phone sales declined 21% from the second quarter of 2012. This is, according to Gartner, the first quarter that worldwide smartphone sales have topped feature phone sales.

    Breaking down the numbers to individual manufacturers reveals few surprises. Samsung is still on top, with 24.7% of the total mobile phone market and 31.7% of the smartphone market. Nokia is maintaining its dominance of the feature phone market and has a 14% share of the worldwide mobile phone market. Apple comes in second to Samsung in the smartphone market, with a 14.2% share of the sector (which translates to 7.3% of the total mobile phone market).

    In terms of mobile operating systems, Android has increased its market share to a full 79%. That increase seems to have come at the expense of Apple, which dropped to a 14.2% share, and BlackBerry, which fell to 2.7% of mobile operating systems. Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS also benefitted from a falling Apple and BlackBerry, rising slightly to 3.3% of the smartphone OS share. These numbers may have been a factor in BlackBerry’s recent announcement that it is exploring “strategic alternatives,” including a possible sale of the company.

    Also of note is that the Symbian OS dropped from 5.9% of the OS market this time last year to just 0.3% today.

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