Gartner: Global mobile sales up 5.6%
18.05.12
IT research and advisory company, Gartner said on Tuesday that global sales of mobile devices totalled 440.5 million units in the third quarter of 2011, up 5.6% from the same period last year, but smartphone growth slowed in mature markets.
Gartner said non-smartphone devices performed well, driven by demand in emerging markets for low-cost devices from white-box manufacturers, and for dual-subscriber identity module (SIM) devices.
“Our forecast for the end of the year remains broadly in line at a worldwide level as regions such as Asia/Pacific and the Middle East and Africa make up for weaker performance in the Western European market,” said Annette Zimmermann, principal analyst at Gartner, based in Munich.
Smartphone sales to end users reached 115 million units in the third quarter of 2011, up 42% from the third quarter of 2010. Sequentially, smartphone sales slowed to 7% growth from the second quarter of 2011 to the third quarter of 2011. Smartphone sales accounted for 26% of all mobile phone sales, growing only marginally from 25% in the previous quarter.
Source: Independent Online