Southeast Asia’s smartphone sales volume up 61% over nine months: Android leads

~~SINGAPORE - The ongoing trend of upgrading from basic mobile phones to smartphones has seen consumers from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines spend US$10.8 billion on nearly 41.5 million units in the first nine months of 2013.

Of seven individual markets tracked, Indonesia has the greatest smartphone sales volume and value. Since the beginning of this year, Indonesian consumers have already bought 14.8 million smartphones worth more than US$3.33 billion. Thailand and Malaysia are next, with 7.2 million and 6.4 million units sold respectively.

“The increasing affordability of smartphones is helping many consumers make the switch from basic feature phones to smartphone,” said Gerard Tan, Account Director for Digital Technology at GfK Asia. “It is worth highlighting the significant milestone of September; where one in two mobile handsets purchased in the region was a smartphone.”

In terms of operating systems, Android, with its 72% market share continues to be increasingly sought across six of the markets. This platform is most widespread in Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore where the operating system now makes up 91%, 83% and 81% total smartphone sales. Consumers are also preferring larger screen sizes. www.gfk.com (ATI).