Smartphones now account for majority of all global mobile sales




Smartphones have overtaken conventional handsets for the first time and now account for the majority of mobile sales globally.

According to new sales data, 55% of overall mobile phone sales in the third quarter of 2013 were classed as smartphones. Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled 455.6 million units in the third quarter of 2013, an increase of 5.7% from the same period last year, Gartner reported.

In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Android surpassed 80% market share in the third quarter of 2013, which helped extend its leading position. However, the "winner of this quarter" according to Gartner is Microsoft, which grew 123%.

While Samsung’s share was flat in the third quarter of 2013, Samsung increased its lead over Apple in the global smartphone market. The launch of the Samsung Note 3 helped reaffirm Samsung as the "clear leader" in the large display smartphone market.

Lenovo’s sales of smartphones grew to 12.9 million units, up 84.5% year-on-year. It constantly raised share in the Chinese smartphone market.

Apple’s smartphone sales reached 30.3 million units in the third quarter of 2013, up 23.2 % from a year ago. Gartner said it believes the price difference between the iPhone 5c and 5s is "not enough" in mature markets, where prices are skewed by operator subsidies, to drive users away from the top of the line model.

In emerging markets, the iPhone 4S will continue to be the volume driver at the low end as the lack of subsidy in most markets leaves the iPhone 5c "too highly priced" to help drive further sales increases.

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