It’s official, more smartphones are sold that feature phones here in Western Europe. Stats from research firm IDC shows that Samsung is ahead with 13.9 million phones sold in the second quarter of 2011 (feature phones and smartphones), with Nokia behind on 9 million followed by Apple and then HTC.
Looking purely at smartphone sales, Samsung are again on top with 4.8 million devices sold in the second quarter, Apple are just behind on 4.6 million and HTC have shifted 3.1 million. Sales in feature phones have dropped by 29% whilst smartphone shipments have shot up by 48%.
This is the first time that smartphone shipments have surpassed feature phone shipments in Western Europe, representing 52% of total mobile phone shipments. All European countries are seeing increasing smartphone adoption, as consumers go for Android-based devices and the iPhone from Apple. On the other hand, mobile operators stopped subsidizing feature phones in Europe some time ago now, which has made the devices less attractive to users. Feature phones are becoming a niche segment driven by the very-low-end devices targeted at users who only need a device for voice and texts.
The Android OS has increased again, with a 352% year-on-year rise. 10.5 million Android devices have sold, which represent 48.5% of total smartphone shipments.
Link – IDC.com