Latest stats reveal APAC boom in smarter handsets.
One in five mobile handsets bought in Asia in Q3 was a smartphone, according to new research published by GfK.
It claims that 4.7 million smartphones were sold in the region during the quarter, up 270% from the 1.27 million sold in Q3 last year.
What's more, GfK points to a changing of the guard in the Asian smartphone market, in terms of operating systems.
"Our Q3 report shows that Android has recently overtaken Symbian as the most popular smartphone OS in the context of Asia as a whole, in both value and unit sales," says GfK's Gerard Tan.
However, he warns that Symbian remains the biggest smartphone OS in South East Asia, even if its share is declining. It's in Northern Asia where Android has accelerated ahead fastest.
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GfK defines 'Asia' as Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan (Northern Asia) and Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam (South East Asia).
China is missing from the list, of course - we await more figures on how Android, Symbian and other smartphone OS' are doing there.
