Smartphone Shipments Beat out Feature Phones in Third Quarter

This day was bound to come: The smartphone is now the most-sold type of mobile phone in the world. Indeed, the latest research from strategy analytics for the third quarter states that six out of every 10 mobile phones shipped during the period were smartphones.

Overall, global smartphone shipments passed the 250 million unit mark for the first time in a single quarter, reaching 251.4 million. This amounts to an increase of 45 percent over the 172.8 million units shipped during Q3 2012. According to Strategy Analytics, the industry’s rapid growth over the last year can largely be attributed to strong demand for LTE models in developed regions, while 3G devices pulled in more customers in emerging markets like China.

Breaking it down in terms of manufacturers, Samsung came out on top by a wide margin. The Korean company shipped 88.4 million smartphones worldwide in the third quarter, up from 56.9 million a year ago, to capture a record 35 percent market share. Despite declining interest in the Galaxy S4, demand for the newly launched Galaxy Note 3 phablet and lower-end devices like the Galaxy Y helped buoy Samsung’s shipments.

Apple, of course, followed Samsung’s market lead, shipping 33.8 million iPhones in Q3, up from 26.9 million year over year. Despite its gain in shipments, the company’s share declined from 15.6 percent to 13.4 percent.

Meanwhile, U.S. smartphone market data for this past July from comScore put Apple as the top OEM with 40 percent of the market, while Samsung trailed with 24 percent share. This seems to suggest that Samsung’s broader range of lower-end devices is allowing it to beat out Apple in developing markets. Since the iPhone 5C didn’t end up being as low-end as was first assumed, this is unlikely to change any time soon.

In third place for the global smartphone market during Q3 was Huawei, which captured 5.1 percent market share on the back of 12.7 million shipments. LG, meanwhile, climbed its way to fourth with the fastest growth among anyone in the top five with 71 percent year over year growth.