U.S. market research firm IDC reported today that 1,004.2 million smartphones were shipped worldwide in 2013, up 38.4 percent from 725.3 million in 2012, surpassing the 1 billion mark for the first time.

This figure is in line with IDC's recent forecast of 1,010.4 million units shipped for the year. Smartphones accounted for 55.1 percent of total global handset shipments in 2013, up from 41.7 percent in 2012. 284.4 million smartphones were shipped worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2013, up 24.2 percent from 229.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Looking at the overall cell phone market, total worldwide shipments of cell phones reached 1,821.8 million units in 2013, up 4.8 percent from 1,738.1 million units in 2012. 488.4 million cell phones were shipped globally in the fourth quarter of 2013, an increase of 0.9 percent from 484.0 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012. This figure is 2.8% below IDC's recent forecast of 502.4 million units.

RamonLlamas, manager of IDC's Handset Research team, said, “The large volume and strong growth suggest that smartphones will remain popular in 2013. 2011 smartphone shipments totaled 494.4 million units, which doubled in just two years, demonstrating both strong end-user demand and the importance that vendors' focus on smartphone strategy.”

IDC analyst Ryan Reith (RyanReith) said that large screens and low prices have become two important trends in smartphones. The low price trend is especially obvious, in the Chinese and Indian markets, smartphones priced below $150 have accounted for the majority.

From the 2013 annual data, Samsung shipments in the first place, market share reached 31.3%, the annual shipments actually increased by 42.9%. Apple ranked second, with a market share of 15.3%, and shipments actually grew by 12.9%. They were followed by Huawei (4.9%), LG (4.8%) and Lenovo (4.5%) respectively.

However, looking at the Q4 2013 figures, Samsung's share has decreased to 28.8%, but it is still in the top spot. Apple is in second place with 17.9% share. They were followed by Huawei (5.8%), Lenovo (4.9%) and LG (4.6%) respectively.

News source: 199IT