Smartphone sales surpasses feature phone sales globally: Gartner

-- Samsung retains its No 1 position; Microsoft OS takes over BlackBerry

Globally for the first time, smartphone sales surpassed feature phone sales and in the smartphone operating system (OS) Microsoft took over Blackberry, while Samsung managed to retain its position as the number one position.

Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totaled 435 million units in the second quarter of 2013, an increase of 3.6% from the same period last year, according to Gartner. Worldwide smartphone sales to end users reached 225 million units, up 46.5% from the second quarter of 2012. Sales of feature phones to end users totaled 210 million units and declined 21 percent year-over-year.

"Smartphones accounted for 51.8 percent of mobile phone sales in the second quarter of 2013, resulting in smartphone sales surpassing feature phone sales for the first time," said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner.

Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe exhibited the highest smartphone growth rates of 74.1%, 55.7% and 31.6% respectively, as smartphone sales grew in all regions.

Samsung maintained the No. 1 position in the global smartphone market, as its share of smartphone sales reached 31.7%, up from 29.7% in the second quarter of 2012. Apple’s smartphone sales reached 32 million units in the second quarter of 2013, up 10.2% from a year ago giving it a market share of 14.2%.

In the smartphone OS market, Microsoft took over BlackBerry for the first time, taking the number three spot with 3.3% market share in the second quarter of 2013. "While Microsoft has managed to increase share and volume in the quarter, Microsoft should continue to focus on growing interest from app developers to help grow its appeal among users," said Gupta. Android continued to increase its lead, garnering 79% of the market in the second quarter.