Smartphone sales exceeded
feature phone sales for the first time in the April-to-June period,
according to research firm Gartner.
Worldwide mobile phone sales totalled 435 million units.
Smartphone sales accounted for 225 million units, up 46.5% from the
previous year.Feature phones totalled 210 million units, down 21%.
The highest smartphone growth rates came from Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, the firm said t.
A smartphone is commonly defined as a device that has built-in applications and can connect to the internet.
In contrast, feature phones tend to perform fewer functions and are priced more cheaply.
"Smartphones accounted for 51.8% 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.
However, a competing firm, IDC, said this milestone had already been reached in the first three months of 2013.