Gartner’s latest mobile and smartphone sales figures show that demand for the iPhone 4S has halted, presumably because people are waiting for the new iPhone to launch. Apple’s flagship handset is expected to get a refresh as early as next month.
But it’s not just the iPhone that has seen a slowdown as overall mobile phone sales were down 2.3 percent year-to-year to 419 million. The analytics company says that nearly 37 percent of those phones were smartphones, a market that continues to grow as feature phone adoption is on the decline. 154 million smartphones were sold, an increase of 42.7 percent since the same time period last year and according to their stats, 83 percent of all smartphones came from Apple and Samsung.
Android reportedly accounted for 64.1 percent of the smartphone market, up from 43.4 percent in the previous year. Samsung’s Galaxy line of handsets is the most popular among Android users, selling 45.6 million units worldwide in the quarter. Furthermore, Samsung sold 10 million Galaxy S III phones in just two months and would have sold more had they not run out of stock.
Meanwhile, sales of the iPhone dropped 12.6 percent since the first quarter although they held steady by clinching 18.8 percent of the global smartphone market. Market share for Symbian and RIM continues to fall as both recorded shares in the 5 percent range. Microsoft and Samsung’s Bada both captured 2.7 percent while all others accounted for less than 1 percent.
