Smartphone sales hit new record for second quarter

MORE smartphones were sold globally during the three months to the end of June than during any other second quarter on record, new figures reveal.

Global smartphone demand totalled 347 million units during the three months, up 4 percent from the same period a year earlier, particularly helped by robust appetite for new products in emerging parts of Asia as well as central and eastern Europe.

Researchers at Germany’s Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK), who compiled the figures, said that overall the value of the market grew by 9 percent year-on-year, due to the rising average sales price of individual smartphones.

“The record demand for smartphones in the second quarter of this year shows that, despite saturation in some markets, the desire to own a smartphone is a worldwide phenomenon,” said Arndt Polifke, global director of telecom research at GfK.

“Manufacturers are maximising all their creativity to ensure their latest devices are irresistible,” he added. – The Independent