The era of the simple “feature phone” that cannot connect to the internet is over in western Europe. Smartphone shipments exceeded those of “feature phones” for the first time in the region over the most recent three months and accounted for 52% of the 42m units sold.New data released by research company IDC show smartphone shipments up 48% compared to the same period in 2010, reaching nearly 22m, as Samsung, Apple, HTC and BlackBerry maker RIM dominated the market and Finland’s Nokia saw its previous dominance wiped out. Last year smartphones made up just over a third of mobile phone sales in the region.To read this report in The Guardian in full, see:
www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/sep/08/smartphones-take-lead-in-mobile-phone-market