Demand for smartphones higher than ever before in Europe

Last year, 258 million handsets were bought by European consumers, a 3.2% increase on 2010. This positive development was attributable above all to one segment in the mobile phone market: smartphones, sales of which shot up by 67%.

In 2010, smartphones only constituted 22% of the sales market, but in 2011 this figure increased to 36%. In December 2011, the share climbed to 45%. Retailers in all 25 surveyed countries in Europe registered high double-digit sales, ranging between 35% in the United Kingdom and 105% in the Eurasian countries of Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey and the Ukraine. With a volume share of over 17%, the United Kingdom is the biggest market for smartphones in Europe at present, followed by Germany, Austria and Switzerland with 16% overall. The average price of a mobile phone in Europe increased by 8% between 2010 and 2011, to €200.

GfK retail experts anticipate that the digital devices industry, which includes mobile telephones, LCD televisions, computers, digital cameras, tablet PCs and office devices, will achieve 22% of its global sales this year through smartphone sales alone. This would equate to a growth of 4 percentage points on the 2011 figure.

The method

GfK's retail panel regularly collects data from more than 90 countries worldwide on mobile and landline telephones, mobile broadband sticks, mobile phone accessories, telecommunications devices, telephone tariffs and mobile content such as games and ringtones. The current analysis is based on data relating to the development of the mobile phone market in 2011 from the 25 countries: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.