Gartner confirms in its newest report that smartphone sales grew 46.5% in the second quarter of 2013 to exceed feature phone sales for the first time on record.
Worldwide smartphone sales to end users reached 225 million units, while feature phones sales totaled just 210 million units.
Samsung maintained the No. 1 position in the global smartphone market, as its share of smartphone sales reached 31.7 percent, up from 29.7 percent in the second quarter of 2012.
Apple’s share of the global smartphone market fell 4 percent, even though the Cupertino, California-based tech giant sold 3 million more iPhones in Q2 of 2013 (vs. Q2 of 2012).
“While Apple’s ASP demonstrates the need for a new flagship model, it is risky for Apple to introduce a new lower-priced model too,” says Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Although the possible new lower-priced device may be priced similarly to the iPhone 4 at $300 to $400, the potential for cannibalization will be much greater than what is seen today with the iPhone 4. Despite being seen as the less expensive sibling of the flagship product, it would represent a new device with the hype of the marketing associated with it.”
To review additional information from “Market Share Analysis: Mobile Phones, Worldwide, 2Q13,” click here.
