Shipments of mobile phones in Western Europe lifted by 2.6 per cent during the second quarter of 2013 to hit 43.3 million units, according to the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Mobile Phone Tracker.
Taking into account figures from the Middle East and Africa, the report shows smartphones holding 75 per cent of overall shipments. The demand for smart devices rose by 19 per cent to reach 32.6 million units, while feature phones chipped in with sales of 10.7 million.
IDC claimed that Q2 sales were muted as a result of happenings in the global economy and people holding onto their phones in the lead up to christmas.
Cited by cbronline.com, the report also noted that although few consumers subscribe to LTE plans, devices with this standard already represent 32 per cent of total mobile phone shipments and 43 per cent of total smartphone shipments.
However, a relatively small uptake for these contracts hints that people would rather send SMS, get basic internet access and make calls than access ultra-fast internet.
Francisco Jeronimo, a research director at IDC, said it will only be a matter of time before more LTE device owners take advantage of what they’ve invested in.
“Although most consumers do not subscribe yet to an LTE data plan when renewing their smartphones, it is important for mobile operators to enable their users with LTE handsets while the expansion of their LTE networks continues,” he told so-co-it.com.
“When the networks are widely available geographically it will be faster to migrate users to an LTE data plan as they become cheaper.”
