Of the world’s geographical regions, only Asia-Pacific was able to register growth in mobile phone sales during Q1 2013, according to research firm Gartner.

Registering sales of more than 226 million units during the three months ended March, a year-on-year increase of 6.4 per cent, the Asia-Pacific region now accounts for a 53.1 per cent share of the worldwide market.

Growth in Asia avoided the global figure from falling. During Q1 2013 worldwide mobile phone sales increased, year-on-year, only by a slender 0.7 per cent, reaching nearly 426 million units.

China has been a strong engine of growth. Mobile phone sales increased there by 7.5 per cent in Q1 2013 and now makes up around 26 per cent of the global market, says Gartner. That’s up nearly 2 percentage points compared with Q1 2012.

“The Chinese and local manufacturers have been exemplary at addressing the demands of buyers by offering affordable devices with optimum features such as 2.5G [EDGE] instead of 3G in a smartphone,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner.

By way of contrast, EMEA sales fell 3.6 per cent, while Latin America dropped 3.8 per cent. There were sharper declines in North America (9.5 per cent) and Japan (7.3 per cent).

The increasing popularity of smartphones, however, has cushioned a slowdown in the feature phone upgrade cycle (which is dragging down overall sales). During Q1 2013, smartphones accounted for 49.3 per cent of mobile phones sold worldwide, up from 34.8 per cent in Q1 2012 (and 44 per cent in 4Q 2012). Sales of feature phones contracted 21.8 per cent during Q1 2013.

“Feature phone users across the world are either finding their existing phones good enough or are waiting for smartphones prices to drop further,” added Gupta. “Either way, the prospect of longer replacement cycles is certainly not good news for both vendors and carriers looking to move users forward.”

Contrasting vendor fortunes

In terms of vendor rankings, Samsung remains top dog. Shipping nearly 101 million mobile phones during the three months ended March 2013, it was a 13 per cent increase compared with the same quarter a year ago. In the process, the South Korean manufacturer bumped up its overall market share, from 21.1 per cent to 23.6 per cent. Samsung’s share of smartphone sales reached 30.8 per cent (64.7 million units), up 3.2 percentage points from Q1 2012.

“We expect the new Galaxy S4 to be very popular despite being more of an evolution than a truly revolutionary device compared to the S3,” added Gupta.

Nokia’s share of the overall market continues to slide, primarily due to a sharp decline in feature phone sales. Although the Finnish company remains in second spot overall, its market share contracted from 19.7 per cent (Q1 2012) to 14.8 per cent (Q1 2013).

Gartner notes that Nokia’s Windows Phone sales have sequentially improved, reaching a volume of 5.1 million units, but it has yet to see high growth in the smartphone segment. Nokia’s ranking in the smartphone market is now a lowly tenth position, says Gartner, down two places from 4Q 2012.

Apple’s share of the smartphone market shrank from 22.5 per cent (Q1 2012) to 18.2 per cent in the first quarter this year.

“Apple is faced with the challenge of being increasingly dependent on the replacement market as its addressable market is capped,” said Gupta. “The next two quarters will also be challenging, as there are no new products expected to be coming before the third quarter of 2013.”

In the smartphone OS market, Android continues to increase its lead. There are nearly 50 per cent more Android smartphones in the market than a year ago. Gartner estimates that Android had a 74.4 per cent share of this market during Q1 2013, up from 56.9 per cent a year ago. Apple’s iOS, meanwhile, shrank from 22.5 per cent to 18.2 per cent.