According to Gartner, the worldwide mobile phone sales to end users has totalled 1.75 billion units in 2012, a total of 1.7 percent decline from 2011 sales with what interesting to note that 52% of fourth quarter smartphone sales were from Apple and Samsung while Nokia sunk to lowest overall handset share.
The overall fourth quarter of 2012 saw record smartphone sales of 207.7 million units, up 38.3 percent from the same period last year. For the year, Gartner predicts that sales of worldwide smartphone sales to end users will be close to 1 billion units while overall mobile phone sales to end users are estimated to reach 1.9 billion units.
“The last time the worldwide mobile phone market declined was in 2009,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Tough economic conditions, shifting consumer preferences and intense market competition weakened the worldwide mobile phone market this year.”
