IDC: Smartphone sales surpass feature phones in Western Europe

Shipments of smartphones surpassed those of feature phones in Western Europe for the first time in Q2, according to new figures from IDC. Feature phone shipments in the region were down 29 percent to 20.4 million units in 2Q11, while smartphone shipments increased 48 percent to 21.8 million units from a year ago.

Smartphones now account for 52 percent of total mobile phone shipments in the region. The total Western European mobile phone market, however, declined 3 percent year-on-year to 42.2 million units in the quarter, according to IDC.

“Feature phones are becoming a niche segment driven by the very-low-end devices targeted at users who only need a device for voice and texts,” said IDC in a statement.

Android OS strengthened its leadership in the region, with shipments up 352 percent year-on-year to 10.5 million units, which represented 48.5 percent of total smartphone shipments. Samsung was the most representative Android manufacturer, supported by the success of the Galaxy devices family.

IDC’s Francisco Jeronimo highlighted a number of factors for the overall decline in Western European phone shipments: "First, the economic environment in the eurozone is deteriorating, with a direct impact on consumer demand. Secondly, the smartphone segment was strongly impacted by the sharp decline of Nokia, which was not totally offset by the remaining players, which may indicate that Symbian fans are holding off on their phone replacements until Nokia launches its Windows Phones.”

He also noted that operators in the region are “focused on clearing inventories for the introduction of the new devices expected in the third quarter, such as the iPhone5 from Apple and Windows Phones from HTC and other players."