Worldwide mobile phone sales declined 2.3% during second quarter, but smartphone sales were up 42.7%: Gartner

Worldwide sales of mobile phones declined 2.3% year-on-year to 419 million units, but smartphone sales were up 42.7% over the same period, a new Gartner study has revealed.

The Gartner report Market Share: Mobile Devices, Worldwide, 2Q12 reveals that overall smartphone sales increased from 107,740,400 to 153,686,100, closely mirroring the 107.7 million to 158.3 million increase shown in a recent Canalys report. 

As expected, the big beneficiaries from the relative growth of smartphones has been Apple and Samsung, with Samsung recording a year-on-year growth rate of 29.5% off the back of strong sales of its Android-based Galaxy S2 and Galaxy S3 smartphones. The Galaxy S3 was the bestselling Android product for the quarter, with sales hampered by supply shortages, with smartphones now accounting for more than half of Samsung’s mobile phone sales.

While Apple’s iPhone sales have softened by 12.6% over the previous quarter, although this might be accounted for by seasonal factors and consumer anticipation of next-generation iPhone 5 devices.

In terms of smartphone platform marketshare, Android shipments increased year-on-year from 46,775,900 (43.4% marketshare) in the second quarter of 2011 to 98,529,300 (64.1%) in 2012. Apple’s marketshare increased marginally, 18.2% to 18.8%, with a significant volume increase from 19,628,800 in 2011 to 28,935,000.

In contrast, Research in Motion BlackBerry declined from 12,652,300 (11.7%) to 7,991,200 (5.2%), while Symbian declined from 23,853,200 (22.1%) to 9,071,500 (5.9%).

Meanwhile, while Microsoft’s Windows Phone and Windows Mobile grew in terms of volume, from 1,723,800 to 4,087,000, it still represents just 2.7% of the market, putting its marketshare at just over half that for RIM.