Mobile phone sales during the first quarter of this year fell short of what was expected a year ago.
Industry tracker Gartner reported that about 419.1 million mobile phones were sold during the first quarter. This figures amount to a two percent decline from the same period last year.
Anshul Gupta of Gartner said, “Global sales of mobile devices declined more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia-Pacific region. The first quarter, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia – which is driven by Chinese New Year – saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year.”
The most promising figure came from South Korean electronics giant Samsung as they became the top mobile phone seller in the quarter.
Samsung sold about 86.8 million units, a 25.9 percent increase from last year’s first quarter.
Smartphones with Android OS accounts to about 56 percent of the total market. iPhones on the other hand has 22.9 percent.
Research in Motion’s BlackBerry saw a dip in its market share. RIM sold 9.9 million units in the first quarter down from 13 million last year.
Grupta said, “RIM desperately needs to deliver winning BB10 products to retain users and stay competitive.”
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