Worldwide smartphone sales to end users accounted for nearly 52 percent of mobile phone sales in the second quarter, surpassing feature phones sales for the first time as a result of growth in Asian countries like China, Gartner said.
Smartphone sales grew by 46.5 percent to reach 225 million units, while feature phones sales dropped by 21 percent year-on-year to 210 million, the research firm said Wednesday.
"There is one stand out reason for why smartphones surpassed feature phones in the second quarter and that was Asia Pacific where sales grew by 74 percent year-on-year, and within the region countries like China and India were driving the growth," said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner.
In these countries, low-cost smartphones rule. The average cost of a smartphone in China is about $120 without subsidies, while users in countries like India, Indonesia and the Philippines pay a little less, according to Gupta. Users pay closer to $100 or even a little less for their smartphones in these countries, he said.
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