Global sales of smartphones grew 46.5 per cent to reach 225 million units while that of feature phones declined 21 per cent to 210 million units across the world in the second quarter of 2013, research firm Gartner said on Wednesday.
This is the first time that sales of smartphones exceeded that of feature phones.
Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled 435 million units in the second quarter of 2013, an increase of 3.6 per cent from the same period last year, Gartner said.
"Smartphones accounted for 51.8 per cent of mobile phone sales in the second quarter of 2013, resulting in smartphone sales surpassing feature phone sales for the first time," Gartner principal research analyst Anshul Gupta said in a statement.
Gartner said Asia/Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe exhibited the highest smartphone growth rates of 74.1 per cent, 55.7 per cent and 31.6 per cent respectively, as smartphone sales grew in all regions.
Samsung maintained the number 1 position in the global smartphone market, with its market share reaching 31.7 per cent, up from 29.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2012.
The company sold 71.38 million smartphone units in the reported quarter followed by Apple, which sold 31.89 million units during the same period.
Apple's market share, however, declined to 14.2 per cent from 18.8
per cent last year, it said.
LG Electronics sold about 11.47 million units while Lenovo's sales stood at 10.67 million units during the second quarter of 2013.
Their respective market share stood at 5.1 per cent and 4.7 per cent.
Samsung retained the number 1 position in the overall mobile phone market too, with sales to end users growing 19 per cent in the second quarter of 2013.
Samsung sold around 107.52 million units across the world and has a market share of 24.7 per cent during Q2 of 2013.
It is followed by Nokia, which sold 60.95 million units and has a market share of 14 per cent. Apple and LG has 7.3 per cent and 3.9 per cent market share respectively during the period.
"With second quarter of 2013 sales broadly on track, we see little need to adjust our expectations for worldwide mobile phone sales forecast to total 1.82 billion units this year", Gupta said.
In the smartphone operating system market, Android continued to increase its lead, garnering 79 per cent of the market in the second quarter.
Microsoft overtook BlackBerry for the first time in this segment, taking the number 3 spot with 3.3 per cent market share in the reported period, Gartner said.
"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," Gupta said.