Global 2013 smartphone sales to hit 1 billion

Global smartphone shipments will cross one billion for the first time this year, predicts IDC, growing more than 40% from last year, and more than doubling from two years ago. That’s compared with only 315 million PCs and 227 million tablets.
According to the research company, the growth is driven by low-cost handsets and gains in emerging markets. IDC predicts that « Smartphones will represent virtually all of the mobile phone market in many of the world’s most developed economies by the end of 2017”.
On the operating system side, Android will take the leading position by taking a 75.3% market share in 2013, followed by iOS with 16.9% share.