Smartphones have outsold more basic handsets worldwide for the first time, with demand for the high-tech devices surging in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and eastern Europe.
Handset makers sold 435m mobile phones in the second quarter of the year, according to data published by research firm Gartner on Wednesday, with smartphones accounting for 225m of those purchased.
With the telephone increasingly replacing laptop and desktop computers as the means by which populations around the world access the internet, sales to end-users of smartphones increased 74% compared to the same period last year in Asia-Pacific, and 56% in Latin America. In eastern Europe, 32% more of the devices were sold.
"Smartphones accounted for 51.8% of mobile phone sales in the second quarter of 2013, resulting in smartphone sales surpassing feature phone sales for the first time," said Gartner analyst Anshul Gupta.
Samsung reinforced its leading position, selling over 71m internet-enabled handsets in the three months to 30 June this year, compared to nearly 56m in the same period last year. Its market share by units sold grew from 30% to nearly 32%. Apple increased sales from 29m to 32m, but its market share fell from 19% to 14%.
Lenovo, the Chinese manufacturer best known for making personal computers, made a determined push into mobile by more than doubling its unit sales – from 4m to nearly 11m. This allowed Lenovo to take fourth spot after South Korean rival LG Electronics in the global smartphone vendor rankings.
However, Lenovo continues to rely heavily on its home market, with sales in China representing 95% of the total. "It remains challenging for Lenovo to expand outside China as it has to strengthen its direct channel, as well as its relationships with communications service providers," said Gupta.
Sony's well received Xperia smartphone range helped the Japanese technology giant sell over 2m more handsets – both smartphones and basic 'feature' phones – than last year, nudging its market in mobiles to 2.2% from 1.7%. Huawei sold 1m more phones, but its all-mobiles market share remained at 2.6%.
Nokia retained its position behind Samsung as the second largest manufacturer globally, but its share is now 14%, behind Samsung's nearly 25%.
Microsoft has overtaken BlackBerry for the first time among the most popular smartphone operating systems, largely thanks to improved sales of Nokia's Lumia range, which uses the Windows Phone software.
Microsoft's market share edged up to 3.3% from 2.6%, and 7.4m handsets were sold, compared to 4m in the same period last year, lifted by a multimillion dollar marketing budget for Nokia's Lumia phones and a wider selection of handsets
Nokia has trained its sights on the budget end of the smartphone market, bringing better screens and cameras to lower priced handsets with the Lumia 520 and 720.
BlackBerry's high-profile relaunch, with the first devices running on its improved BB10 operating system, failed to halt the company's decline. Its market share fell from 5.2% to 2.7%, and the number of units sold from 8m to just over 6m.
Gartner forecasts 1.82bn mobile phones will be sold this year.