Smartphones outsell basic handsets for first time

Sales of internet-connected smartphones have outstripped more basic handsets for the first time as customers in emerging markets have benefited from the steep drop in prices of devices featuring the latest technologies.

Global mobile phone sales grew 3.6 per cent to 435m units in the second quarter of 2013, according to research group Gartner, but for the first time smartphones accounted for more than half of the market.

Global smartphone sales reached 225m, a rise of 46.5 per cent from the second quarter of 2012, while sales of basic “feature” phones fell more than a fifth to 210m. IDG, a rival research group, claimed that the crossover happened in the first quarter of this year, when 216.2m smartphones were sold, out of a total 418.6m mobile phones.

Gartner measured a particular surge in demand for smartphones in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and eastern Europe, where people often use their mobile phones as the only means of internet access. Such emerging markets have benefited from the fall in price of Android-based smartphones often made by Asian manufacturers.

In a further sign of the decline of BlackBerry, the Canadian handset maker that on Monday put itself up for sale, Gartner found that Microsoft has taken its position as the third-largest smartphone operating system.

Microsoft’s Windows phones accounted for a 3.3 per cent market share in the second quarter of 2013, up from 2.6 per cent in the period last year, while BlackBerry’s share of the market almost halved to 2.7 per cent.

Samsung remains the best-selling handset maker with a market share of smartphone sales of 31.7 per cent, up from 29.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2012, although Apple’s position deteriorated. It took 14.2 per cent of sales in the second quarter, down from almost 19 per cent in the previous year, but ahead of the expected launch of its latest iPhone in September.

LG Electronics, another South Korean manufacturer, has become the third-largest handset maker ahead of Chinese groups Lenovo and ZTE, which have built a strong position in the market based on cheap Android devices sometimes sold under other brand names.