More Smartphones Than Regular Mobile Phones

We’ve reached the point where smartphones now dominate the mobile phone market:

It’s finally time for the old-school clamshell cellphone to step aside and make way for the smartphone, which is now the most popular type of phone in the world.

IDC, the research firm, issued a report Thursday night that found that more than half of cellphone shipments in the first quarter were smartphones. Manufacturers shipped 418.6 million cellphones, 216.2 million of which were smartphones, says IDC.

Samsung, the top maker of smartphones, shipped 70.7 million, commanding 32.7 percent of the market in the first quarter. Apple was in second place with 37.4 million iPhones sold and 17.3 percent of the market. LG was in a distant third with 10.3 million smartphones, for 4.8 percent of the market.

The article goes on to know that old-school phones still remain very popular in Russia, China, India, and much of the third world. In the west and Japan, though, the smartphone is on its way to becoming ubiquitous.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. And we’re all paying way too much for them……

    I’m paying more for my “smartphone” than I ever paid for a phone or an internet connection. I predict hard times for the cell phone carriers once the rip-off becomes intolerable…….

  2. john personna says:

    I’m really happy with my smartphone (Droid/Verizon) but as I’ve said, I plan to drop down to something like StraightTalk in the near future.

    I hope competition will drive rates lower faster than mergers will make them higher.

  3. @john personna:

    I hope competition will drive rates lower faster than mergers will make them higher.

    Depends on the nature of the competition. If the cell providers want to compete on who offers the crappiest contracts –like they have over the last decade or so– no thanks.

  4. PJ says:

    I’d change the headline, since the current one isn’t true.

  5. Andre Kenji says:

    In the so called “Third World”(A very antiquated and useless phrase, by the way) smartphones are becoming increasingly popular, helped by budget phones by companies like Samsung and Huawei.

  6. Rafer Janders says:

    @James Pearce (Formerly Known as Herb):

    I’m paying more for my “smartphone” than I ever paid for a phone or an internet connection.

    That’s because your smartphone is not a phone. It’s a phone plus powerful personal computer plus video camera plus still camera plus photo and video editing software plus tape recorder plus memo pad plus address book plus GPS plus typewriter plus alarm clock plus portable music player plus portable music storage device etc. etc.