Smartphone sales exceeded feature phone
sales for the first time in the April-to-June
period, according to research firm Gartner.
Worldwide mobile phone sales totalled 435
million units. Smartphone sales accounted for
225 million units, up 46.5% from the previous
year.
Feature phones totalled 210 million units,
down 21%.
The highest smartphone growth rates came
from Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe,
the firm said.
A smartphone is commonly defined as a device
that has built-in applications and can connect
to the internet.
In contrast, feature phones tend to perform
fewer functions and are priced more cheaply.
"Smartphones accounted for 51.8% of mobile
phone sales in the second quarter of 2013,
resulting in smartphone sales surpassing
feature phone sales for the first time," said
Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at
Gartner.
However, a competing firm, IDC, said this
milestone had already been reached in the first
three months of 2013.
Price differential
However, some analysts said that the price of
entry-level smartphones has come down
sharply over the past few months, resulting in
a major sales boost.
"We have a lot of Asian manufactures such as
Samsung, Huawei, ZTE and LG who are coming
put with much more affordable smartphone
models," said Andrew Milroy of consulting
firm Frost & Sullivan.
"That has helped them tap into a vast
consumer base, especially in emerging
markets."
Mr Milroy added that some mobile phone
carriers had also been offering pre-paid data
plans, allowing consumers in these markets to
limit their bills while using features such as
email and mobile applications, which had also
helped attract new customers.
'Hard sell'
Gartner said Samsung continued to be the top
seller of smartphones globally, while Apple saw
its marketshare come down to 14.2% from
18.8% in the same period a year ago.
Meanwhile, Lenovo, the world biggest PC-
maker, managed to gain a lot of market share
very quickly with an aggressive push into the
smartphone market.
Gartner said that in terms of operating
systems, Google's Android was top, with 79%
market share, followed by Apple's iOS with
14.2%. However, Microsoft overtook
Blackberry for the first time to come in third
place.
Mr Milroy said that given the growth in
smartphones sales, coupled with a drop in
their prices, the future for feature phones
looks bleak.
"Feature phones will be a hard sell in about
five to 10 years time," he said.
"It will reach a point where the sales of a new
model of feature phone will not be able to
justify the amount of time and money that is
spent into developing it."
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