SAN FRANCISCO—Sales of smartphones continues to drive mobile device market growth in the first quarter of 2012, but global sales of all cell phones declined compared to the first quarter of 2011, according to market research firm
Forward Concepts Inc. Sales of all handsets came to about 379 million units worldwide in the first quarter, down 9 percent from the first quarter of 2011, Forward Concepts said.
"Global sales of mobile devices declined in Q1 more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the emerging regions," said Carter Horney, the Forward Concepts analyst who served as the principle author of the firm's new report on the handset and tablet markets. "All vendors were impacted at different levels; however, Chinese white-box vendors suffered the most with bloated inventories."
Smartphone sales reached about 139 million units in the first quarter, up a robust 44 percent compared to the first quarter of 2012, according to the Forward Concepts report. Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.—the top two smartphone vendors—raised their combined market share up to nearly 46 percent in the first quarter, up from 30 percent in the first quarter of 2011, Forward Concepts said.
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