smartphones were sold in 2014. That is a gain of
23% for the year. But the market and consumer
information firm sees sales growth dropping to
14% in 2015. That would result in a total of 1.368
billion units sold this year. Interestingly, at the
beginning of 2014 feature phone sales still out
numbered those for smartphones. By the end of
the year, many of those feature phone users had
taken the plunge with an Android smartphone.
GfK tracks sales rather than shipments, and the
data showed that for the fourth quarter sales
surged 43% in Latin America from 25.1 million in
2013, to 36 million in the 2014 quarter. The
Emerging Asian and Pacific market had the next
best quarter, up 37%. That was followed by the
35% gain in the Middle East and Africa. In North
America, fourth quarter smartphone sales rose
31% from 43.6 million in 2013 to 57 million last
year. At 95.1 million units, China had the most
smartphone sales which was flat with the 95
million sold in the prior year. Overall, 346.5
million smartphones were sold in Q4 of 2014 a 19%
hike from 2013's 292 million.
For the entire year, the biggest gain also came
from Latin America. 2014 saw smartphone sales in
the region hit 109.5 million, up 59% from the
68.7 million sold in 2013. That narrowly beat out
the 55% gain year-over-year seen in the
Emerging Asian Pacific market. Central and
Eastern Europe saw its smartphone sales rise
37%. In North America, smartphone sales climbed
28% in 2014 to 177.6 million from 139.1 million.
China had the largest number of smartphones sold
last year at 392.8 million. That was a 9% rise
from the 359 million that were rung up in 2013.
Smartphones with a 5-inch screen or larger saw
sales rise 180% in 2014 and is the reason for the
decline in tablet sales. GfK sees these large-
screened phones as being the largest segment of
the industry in 2015.
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