Region's smartphone sales continue to soar

Rising demand for smartphones continues to punch in all the right numbers for growth in the mobile handset category in the Middle East and Africa. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, smartphone sales are expected to grow a further 4.76 per cent to 6.6 million units in April-June quarter. They accounted for 15.86 per cent of all mobile handset sales in the first quarter, as BlackBerry volumes recorded 1.5 million units and the iPhone sold 429,000 units. Nokia took pole position selling 3.5 million smartphones in the region, while Android-powered models accounted for 631,000 units. "Nokia lost market share to others in the first quarter of this year; its share declined 5.2 percentage points year-on-year to 56.3 per cent compared to 61.5 per cent during the same period last year," said Annette Zimmermann, a principal analyst for consumer markets and technology at Gartner Inc. Despite this, Nokia held on to the leadership status followed by Samsung, RIM, LG Electronics and Sony Ericsson.