Asian mobile phone manufacturers helped drive global smartphone sales to a 4.3 per cent year-over-year increase in the second quarter of 2016, despite slowing overall sales, according to data released by Gartner Inc. Thursday. Only half of the top-10 mobile phone vendors increased their sales in the quarter to a total of 344 million units, though overall sales of all mobile phones contracted by 0.5 per cent, the U.K.-based company said in a press release. “Demand for premium smartphones slowed in the second quarter of 2016 as consumers wait for new hardware launches in the second...
Demand for affordable devices helped global sales of smartphones hit 353 million units in the third quarter of 2015, up 15.5 per cent from the same period a year earlier, Gartner Inc. said Wednesday. The research company said in a press release that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. “refreshed its flagship devices,” in order to address slowing demand for its high-end devices and compete with Apple Inc.’s large-screened iPhones. Gartner reported it sold 83.6 million units in the third quarter of this year, up from 72.9 million during the same period a year earlier. Gartner added that Apple “continued its dominance” in the marketplace with its iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models, and noted that its successful launch of its 6s and 6s Plus models at the end of September...