Smartphone Sales Top Feature Phone Sales for First Time

A recent study from Gartner brought with it a major revelation that, for the first time, smartphone sales worldwide actually outstripped feature phone sales. This is a big bit of news in its own right, but the really impressive part of the Gartner study is that that's just where the big news begins. The details tell an even more impressive story.

The Gartner study, titled “Market Share Analysis: Mobile Phones, Worldwide, 2013” brought some compelling numbers along with it. Worldwide mobile phone sales reached 435 million in the second quarter of 2013, which in turn is up 3.6 percent over the same time last year. Smartphone sales saw the biggest share of the jump, reaching 225 million units and turning in a 46.5 percent jump over the same time last year, while feature phone sales hit 210 million, down 21 percent over the same time.

This puts smartphones at 51.8 percent of total mobile phone sales, the first time such a majority has been achieved by the devices. Smartphone growth rates were in wide presence worldwide, with the Asia / Pacific region turning in 74.1 percent growth, Latin America turning in 55.7 percent growth, and Eastern Europe accounting for 31.6 percent growth.

Still on top of the smartphone food chain was Samsung, who kept the number one position in an uptick from 29.7 percent in the second quarter of 2012, to reach 31.7 percent in 2013's second quarter. But there were changes in the operating system field that were quite noteworthy as well: the Microsoft operating system took the third place slot, beating out BlackBerry to take 3.3 percent of the market against BlackBerry's 2.7 percent. The second place slot went to iOS at 14.2 percent of the market, and the clear winner here worldwide was Android at 79.0 percent of the market. Interestingly, Android's market share was up substantially from 64.2 percent this time last year, while iOS lost ground from last year at 18.8 percent. BlackBerry also lost quite a bit from 5.2 percent, while Microsoft's gains were comparatively small from 2.6 percent, suggesting that much of the market went Android from this time last year.

The Gartner study also tackled issues within individual companies. It was noted that Samsung should focus on lower-tier markets, like mid-tier consumer releases and those for emerging markets. While Samsung's high-end devices are excellent and doing well, it's worth noting that the budget models are more limited in Samsung. Nokia, meanwhile, is hit hard by the reductions in feature phones, but the Lumia device line may ultimately prove helpful on this front. However, there will be significant competition for Nokia on this front, so Nokia will need to tread carefully. Finally, Apple may well be its own worst enemy, as strong sales showed up for the iPhone 4 at a strongly discounted price. Apple could stand a new flagship model, according to the report, but notes that a lower-priced device may cut in on sales for other models in the Apple line.

There's plenty of upheaval going on in the broader smartphone market. It's clear that, market-share wise, Android is top of the heap and will be for some time to come, but change is a particular constant in this market, and with new products and events rolling out all the time, the only thing that's sure is that nothing really is, and by this time next year, we may well be looking at a new top of the heap.