More than half of the smartphones sold around the world in Q2 were 4G capable, according to a new report.
Market research firm GfK found that the share of 4G smartphones rose 129 percent year-on-year to capture 58 percent of the entire smartphone market.
A total of 302.1 million handsets were sold in Q2, up five percent, representing a total sales value of US $92.4 billion (€83.3 billion).
Nearly half of the smartphones sold in Western Europe in Q2 were entry-level devices, compared to 37 percent for the same period in 2014.
The value of smartphone sales in Europe, which has very high penetration levels, fell seven percent to $11.7 billion (€10.5 billion) as a result.
In Central and Eastern Europe, meanwhile, macroeconomic issues in Russia and Ukraine were a contributing factor to a 15 percent fall in sales value.
Unit sales were down 11 percent and 34 percent respectively in the two countries.
Kevin Walsh, Director of Trends and Forecasting at GfK, said: “The first half of the year has seen macro events providing headwinds to topline demand in regions like C&E Europe, LatAm and China.
“Weak macroeconomic trends will continue across a number of major countries…but recoveries when they come are often faster than expected, especially for tech sectors.”
The Middle East and Africa and India particular strongest growth, with unit sales rising 24 percent to hit 39.4 million.
This was followed by Emerging Asia-Pac (up 22 percent to 44.2 million) and North America (up 10 percent to 44.4 million).
Walsh said: “India is expected to be the largest contributor of absolute smartphone unit growth globally this year. The main reason behind this is the currently low smartphone penetration in the market together with a significant intensification of the competition amongst the smartphone vendors, which will drive average sales price erosion allowing more affordable devices in the market.”