While smartphones are certainly popular these days, and capable of all sorts of incredible feats, it’s also important to remember that they’re the new kids on the block, and many mobile users continue to use traditional cellphones (especially outside of the U.S. and Europe).
According to the latest research from Vision Mobile, as reported by TheNextWeb, smartphones account for only 27% of all mobile phones sold around the world, although they are making rapid and significant gains in most parts of the world.
Vision Mobile’s report shows that Nokia and Samsung feature phones hold the largest global share of cell phone sales, at 20 percent and 17 percent, respectively, while the mass of “generic” phones take up an additional 27 percent.
Smartphone usage also varies by region. As you might expect, smartphone adoption rates are much higher in North America and Europe, while China’s adoption rates, while still high, aren’t quite as agressive, and less developed mobile regions such as the Middle East are showing very slow adoption rates.
At any rate, despite the fact that smartphones are currently a minority in the mobile device world, it’s unlikely that they’ll remain a minority for long, especially now that smartphones based on both iOS and Android continue to decrease in price (there are “free with contract” options available with both platforms).
