Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Global mobile phone sales soared by 17 percent in the first quarter, driven by smartphone models, the Gartner tech industry research house said on Wednesday.
For the three months to March, some 314 million mobile phones were sold, of which 54.3 million were smartphone models which allow users to access the Internet on the move, Gartner said.
Finland's Nokia kept hold of first place in the overall global mobile phone market althought its share slipped to 35 percent from 36.2 percent a year earlier.
South Korea's Samsung was second, increasing its market share to 20.6 percent from 19.1 percent, followed by local rival LG which fell to 8.6 percent from 9.9 percent.
Japanese-Swedish combine Sony-Ericcson was in fifth place followed by Motorola of the United States.
Gartner said that in the first quarter sales of smartphones showed the biggest jump since 2006, with RIM of Canada's BlackBerry gaining 45.9 percent from the figure 12 months earlier.
Sales of Apple's iPhone soared 112.2 percent to 8.3 million units but its market share remained modest at 2.7 percent overall.
In the smartphone sector, Nokia held onto first place with a 44.3 percent market share, down 4.5 percentage points, followed by RIM, Apple and then Google with its Android operating system which has made huge inroads in the United States to edge out Apple there.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments