Sales Of Smartphones Up 74 Percent

According to the respected research firm Gartner, smartphone and mobile device sales in the second quarter of 2011 are up an incredible 74%. Global sales of mobile devices to end users in general totaled 428.7 million units in the second quarter of 2011, for a 16.5 percent increase from the second quarter of 2010.

But it was the smartphone genre that really caught fire in terms of growth. “Smartphone sales continued to rise at the expense of feature phones,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Consumers in mature markets are choosing entry-level and midrange Android smartphones over feature phones, partly due to carriers’ and manufacturers’ promotions.”

Google and Apple are the big gainers in the smartphone market according to Gartner. The combined share of iOS and Android  devices in the smartphone operating system (OS) market doubled to nearly 62 percent in the second quarter of 2011, up from just over 31 percent in the corresponding period of 2010.

This growth has pushed the world of custom-built mobile applications out of the realm of being a good idea and into the realm of a necessity for any competitive business. Businesses with out a comprehensive strategy for growth that addresses custom-built mobile applications including iPhone applications, Android applications and applications for tablets will soon be left behind more savvy competitors that have embraced these markets.