Global sales of smartphones surged by 40% on year in the second quarter of this year, far outperforming the 15% growth for all handsets sold during the same period. This indicates consumer enthusiasm for smartphone devices remains strong, even under the threat of a potential business slump in the second half of the year.
Sales of handsets worldwide reached 300 million units in the second quarter, up 5% sequentially and 15% on year, according to data released by market research firms.
On the other hand, global sales of smartphones in the same quarter topped 37.1 million units, up 37.4% from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Nokia.
Nokia shipped 15.3 million smartphones in the second quarter, up only 10% on year and also below the market average of close to 40%, although it shipped over 10 million N-series smartphones and two million E-series models in the quarter.
Half of about 10 new models launched by Motorola in the second quarter were smartphones, including the Linux-based E8, A1600, A1800 and A810 and Symbian-based Z8m for the South Korea market.
RIM (Research in Motion) and Palm are both planning to launch new flagship models in the third quarter while Apple launched its 3G iPhone in early July. Other smartphone models are also likely to hit the market in the third quarter including Samsung Electronics' Omnia, Sony Ericsson's Xperia XI and Nokia's N96.
Obviously, most handset vendors seem to have not slowed down their pace in the launch of new smartphones despite growing concerns that demand for handsets might become weak in the second half of the year.
The ratio of smartphones to the global handset market is expected to climb to 15% in the second half of this year, up from 12-13% currently. In the US market alone, sales of smartphones already reached 20% in the second quarter.
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