Global mobile phone sales to end users rose 0.7% during the first quarter of 2013 to about 426 million units compared to 2012, according to a report from Gartner.
During the quarter, global smartphone sales reached 210 million units, representing a 42.9% rise over the corresponding quarter in 2012.
Gartner reported that the Asia/Pacific region was the only region to report growth in sales while other regions reported decline in sales.
The Asia/Pacific region reported a 6.4% year-on-year increase in mobile phone sales during the quarter.
Gartner principal research analyst Anshul Gupta said that more than 226 million mobile phones were sold to end users in Asia/Pacific region in the first quarter of 2013, which helped the region increase its share of global mobile phones to 53.1% year-on-year.
"In addition, China saw its mobile phone sales increase 7.5% in the first quarter of 2013, and its sales represented 25.7% of global mobile phone sales, up nearly two percentage points year-on-year," Gupta said.
"The Chinese and local manufacturers have been exemplary at addressing the demands of buyers by offering affordable devices with optimum features such as 2.5G (EDGE) instead of 3G in a smartphone.
"In the smartphone market, local and Chinese manufacturers are making faster inroads as they account for 29% share in the first quarter of 2013, up from 13.2% a year ago."
EMEA region reported 3.6% drop in mobile phone sales, while the North America and Latin America’s mobile phone market declined 9.5% and 3.8% respectively during the quarter, Japan reporting 7.3% slump in sales compared to corresponding quarter in 2012.
Samsung topped the list of vendors with highest mobile phone sales by capturing a market share of 23.6%, followed by Nokia and Apple with 14.8% and 9% respectively.
"Feature phones users across the world are either finding their existing phones good enough or are waiting for smartphones prices to drop further. Either way, the prospect of longer replacement cycles is certainly not good news for both vendors and carriers looking to move users forward," Gupta said.
Samsung again led the global market with highest smartphone sales and capturing 30.8% of market share, followed by Apple, LG Electronics, Huawei and ZTE.
During the quarter, Android topped the list of global smartphone sales to end users by operating system, followed by iOS, BlackBerry, Microsoft, Bada and Symbian.