Smartphone sales surge by 43%

Smartphones are selling like hot compact and shiny technological gadgets, being up 43% this quarter compared to the same period last year.

A record 60 million smartphone units were shifted in the second quarter, according to a Strategy Analytics report authored by Neil Mawston.

Mawston commented that: “Healthy operator subsidies, vigorous competition between premium tier vendors and a growing range of lower-cost models continued to drive the upswing.”

Although it wasn’t all good news for every company, as Apple slipped with its market share compared to the first quarter, falling from 16% to 14%. Mawston called it a mixed quarter for Apple, what with the increasing amount of fire directed at the company over the iPhone 4 antenna issue which has hit some users of its fourth generation smartphone.

Apple was still up on the same time a year ago, however, when its share was 12.5%. And these second quarter figures don’t include the iPhone 4 sales, which won’t impact until the third quarter, Cnet reports Mawston as stating.

Quarter-on-quarter, Nokia grew slightly at the top, with a market share of 40%, and Rim held steady in second position with around 19%.

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