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Worldwide sales of smartphones to end users totaled 968 million units in 2013, an increase of 42.3 percent from 2012, according to Gartner. Sales of smartphones accounted for 53.6 percent of overall mobile phone sales in 2013, and exceeded annual sales of feature phones for the first time.
Smartphone sales grew 36 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013 and accounted for 57.6 percent of overall mobile phone sales in the fourth quarter, up from 44 percent year over year. This increasing contribution of smartphones was led by growth in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Asia/Pacific andEastern Europe, where smartphone sales grew by more than 50 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.
India exhibits the highest smartphone sales
With a 166.8 percent increase in the fourth quarter of 2013,India exhibited the highest smartphone sales growth among the countries tracked by Gartner, andLatin America saw the strongest growth among all regions (96.1 percent) in the fourth quarter.China also contributed significantly to worldwide smartphone sales as sales grew 86.3 percent in 2013.
Gartner expects smartphones to continue to drive overall sales in 2014 and an increasing number of manufacturers will realign their portfolios to focus on the low-cost smartphone sector.
Sales of high-end smartphones will slow as increasing sales of low- and mid-price smartphones in high-growth emerging markets will shift the product mix to lower-end devices. This will lead to a decline in average selling price and a slowdown in revenue growth.
In the smartphone OS market, Android's share grew 12 percentage points to reach 78.4 percent in 2013. The Android platform will continue to benefit from this, with sales of Android phones in 2014 approaching the billion mark.
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