The global mobile phone sales to end users totalled 455.6 million units in the third quarter of 2013, a 5.7 per cent rise from the same period last year, according to a study by Gartner.
The sales of smartphones accounted for 55 per cent of overall mobile phone sales in the third quarter of 2013, and reached their highest share to date.
Worldwide smartphone sales to end users reached 250.2 million units, up 45.8 per cent from the third quarter of 2012. Asia-Pacific led the growth in both markets —the smartphone segment with 77.3 per cent rise and the mobile phone segment with 11.9 per cent growth.
The other regions to show an increase in the overall mobile phone market were Western Europe, which returned to growth for the first time this year, and the Americas, the study said.
“Sales of feature phones continued to decline and the decrease was more pronounced in markets where the average selling price (ASP) for feature phones was much closer to the ASP affordable smartphones,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner.