Reports: Global Smartphone Shipments Reach a First Time, Record 990 Million Units in 2013

Put it this way. If every person on this planet kept one smartphone that they purchased in 2013 for themselves, one in every seven people would have walked with a new smartphone in their hands.

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Two separate reports from two analysts put the sales of smartphones in 2013 close to a billion. While, IDC claims the sales topped one billion, Strategy Analysts claim the figure stood at close to 990 million. Still, that’s a lot of smartphones. The annual growth rate was also close to an astonishing 40 percent. No wonder every one wants to get on the phone making bandwagon.
Breakdown of the sales reveals that Samsung accounted to almost a third of all those sales, shipping 319.8 million smartphones worldwide (IDC report puts the number at 313.9 million). And although the Galaxy S4 and the Note 3 were key drivers to the sales, umpteen other models also played their roles well.
Apple came in second, shipping close to 150 million smartphones, or less than half of what Samsung managed. Although, the higher profit margins on the sales of iPhone means the company still made a lot of cash. However, with just 13 percent growth rate, Apple failed to keep up with the market’s pace.
LG, Huawei and Lenovo came in third, fourth and fifth respectively (fifth, third and fourth respectively, according to IDC), selling under 50 million smartphones each. This year also saw local manufacturers offering large sized cheap Androids capture a significant share in markets like Korea, China and India.
Source: idc  & strategyanalytics

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