Smartphones are stored

In the first quarter of this year, the number of smartphone sales exceeded the number of traditional (feature) mobile phones in the world for the first time, according to a quarterly regular survey by the computer and telecommunications market research company International Data Corporation (IDC). In the first quarter, which traditionally had weak sales data for seasonal reasons, mobile phone sales grew 4 percent this year compared to the first quarter of 2012. In the first quarter of this year, 418,6 million mobile phones were sold in the global market, compared to 402,4 million a year earlier and 483,2 million in the fourth quarter of last year. In first-quarter sales, smartphone sales accounted for 216,2 million, or 51,6 percent of the total. Smartphone sales in the first quarter of this year surpassed traditional cell phones for the first time. 

Smartphone sales in the first quarter of this year surpassed the 41,6 million in the first quarter of 2012 by 152,7 percent, but fell short of the 5,1 million in the fourth quarter by 227,8 percent. "Besides the rise of smartphones, another fundamental trend in the industry is the advancement of Chinese companies in the ranking of manufacturers," said Ramon Llamas, head of IDC's mobile phone research department. "Compared to the situation a year ago, when it was still common to see the former market leaders Nokia and BlackBerry (RIM) and the Chinese company ZTE in the top five, names such as Huawei, the Coolpad and Lenovo,” he said. [MTI]