Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Up Over 455 Million Units

According to Gartner IT, a leading information technology research and advisory firm, worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 455.6 million units in the third quarter of 2013. This represents an increase of 5.7 percent from the same quarter last year. Sales of smartphones represented 55 percent of overall mobile phones, the highest share to date. Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, explained the boost in smartphones: “Sales of feature phones continued to decline and the decrease was more pronounced in markets where the average selling price (ASP) for feature phones was much closer to the ASP [of] affordable smartphones. In markets such as China and Latin America, demand for feature phones fell significantly as users rushed to replace their old models with smartphones.” Investors and technology enthusiasts closely follow Gartner studies to gain a better understanding of where the leading manufacturers stand in the fiercely competitive global stage. Apple received a boost in sales with the arrival of the new iPhones 5S and 5C. Its total global smartphone sales reached 30.3 million, up 23.2 percent from a year ago. Apple's global market share is estimated at 12.1 percent. LG Electronics ranked fourth with a 4.8 percent smartphone global market share, while Huawei came in fifth with 4.7 percent global market share.

Gartner analysts place the global mobile phone sales on pace to reach 1.81 billion units by the end of the year, representing a 3.4 percent increase from 2012.

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Gartner reported that Samsung increased its lead over Apple AAPL in the smartphone global market. Solidifying Samsung's SSNLF lead was its recently released Note 3, in which the company "pioneered" the large display smartphone market. Total sales for the quarter were recorded at 80.3 million units, giving the company an estimated 32.1 percent global market share.

Chinese-based Lenovo's recorded sales of 12.8 million smartphones was enough to make the company the third largest for the first time ever. The company holds a 5.1 percent smartphone global market share.

Android was reported as the clear operating system winner, with a global market share of 81.9 percent. Apple's iOS ranked in a distant second at 12.1 percent.