The days of feature phones are numbered and the eventuality of this happening in much nearer date is made more sure with the recent Gartner report, which said smartphones have finally took over feature phones globally.
Another report coming from IDC also shares the same trend but indicating that Android-run smartphones are pushing for a global takeover.
According to Gartner report published by The Economic Times, global sales of smartphones grew 46.5 percent or 225 million units, while feature phone sales dropped 21 percent to 210 million units across the world in Q2 of 2013.
Gartner emphasized this is the first time that sales of smartphones exceeded that of feature phones.
Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled 435 million units in the second quarter of 2013, an increase of 3.6 per cent from the same period last year, Gartner said.
“Smartphones accounted for 51.8 per cent of mobile phone sales in the second quarter of 2013, resulting in smartphone sales surpassing feature phone sales for the first time,” according to Gartner.
Asia/Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe exhibited the highest smartphone growth rates of 74.1 per cent, 55.7 per cent and 31.6 per cent respectively, as smartphone sales grew in all regions.
Businessinsider.com quoting IDC figures reported Android already powers 80 percent of smartphones worldwide, with Apple iOS powering 13 percent, down by 3 percent from last year.
Back to Gartner report, it also said Samsung has become the overall winner maintaining number 1 position in the global smartphone market, with its market share reaching 31.7 per cent, up from 29.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2012.
Samsung sold 71.38 million smartphone units in the reported quarter followed by Apple, which sold 31.89 million units during the same period. Apple’s market share, however, declined to 14.2 per cent from 18.8 per cent last year.
LG Electronics sold about 11.47 million units while Lenovo’s sales stood at 10.67 million units during the second quarter of 2013. Their respective market share stood at 5.1 per cent and 4.7 per cent.
In both feature and smartphone market, Samsung also retained the number 1 position with sales to end users growing 19 per cent in the second quarter of 2013.
Samsung sold around 107.52 million units across the world and has a market share of 24.7 per cent during Q2 of 2013. It is followed by Nokia, which sold 60.95 million units and has a market share of 14 per cent. Apple and LG has 7.3 per cent and 3.9 per cent market share respectively during the period.
The figures are already staggering. Wait till you hear the sales forecast for the entire year–1.82 billion units!
“With second quarter of 2013 sales broadly on track, we see little need to adjust our expectations for worldwide mobile phone sales forecast to total 1.82 billion units this year.”
Gartner also noted that Blackberry is losing more ground as Microsoft run smartphones overtook the Canadian contender.
“Microsoft overtook BlackBerry for the first time in this segment, taking the number 3 spot with 3.3 per cent market share in the reported period.”
