Global smartphone sales up by 19.3pct

comments     Bernama     Published     Updated

Global sales of smartphones to end users hit 336 million units, an increase of 19.3 percent, in the first quarter of 2015, driven by strong sales in emerging markets, excluding China, says a research firm.

Gartner Research Director Anshul Gupta said the fastest growing regions were the Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa.

He said due to these high-performing regions, the emerging markets achieved a 40 percent increase in sales during the first quarter of 2015.

“During the said quarter, local brands and Chinese vendors came out as the key winners in emerging markets,” Gupta said in a statement today.

Among the top five global smartphone vendors, Samsung continued to contract in sales and share during the first quarter of 2015 at 24.2 percent (81.1 million units) from 30.4 percent share (85.5 million unit) of smartphone sales in the year-ago period.

“We expect Samsung’s drop rate to be slower than that seen in recent quarters with sales of its new S6 smartphones starting in the second quarter of 2015, and its Galaxy Alpha receiving good response,” said Gupta.

Apple continued to exhibit a strong performance in the quarter, particularly in China, with iPhone sales up 72.5 percent (60.17 million units), making Apple the number one smartphone vendor in China.

- Bernama



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