Global sales of mobile devices declined in the first quarter more than expected, due to a slowdown in demand from the emerging regions. All vendors were impacted at different levels. However, Chinese white-box vendors suffered the most with bloated inventories, According to a report from Forward Concepts. The study also shows that worldwide sales of mobile phones (budget, midrange, feature and smartphones) to end users reached 379 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 9 percent decline from the first quarter of 2011. Sales of smartphones continued to drive mobile device market growth, reaching 139 million units in the first quarter of 2012, reaching 37 percent of the global mobile phone market. The report also indicates that smartphone vendors, Apple and Samsung, raised their combined share to 45.7 percent, up from 30 percent in the first quarter of 2011, and widening their lead over Nokia – which saw its smartphone market share drop to 8.6 percent. In the first quarter of 2012, Apple iPads achieved a 59.3 percent share of the media tablet market (which includes the sub-USD 199 Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook). E-reader manufacturers shipped just 1.4 million units in the first quarter of 2012, down from 4.2 million units shipped in the final quarter of 2011.
