Smartphone sales up 42 per cent

440.5m mobile devices sold worldwide in Q3.

Market analyst Gartner reports worldwide mobile sales have grown by 5.6 per cent for Q3 as a result of tech-hungry consumers adopting smartphones and tablets.

The firm claims this has seen over 440.5 million devices sold globally while 115 million smartphones were sold at a 42 per cent increase compared to Q3 2010.

However, smartphone sales slowed to just seven per cent between the second and third quarter of this year. In addition the devices only grew by one per cent to 26 per cent of all mobile phone sales in the same period, according to the report.

Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, said: "Strong smartphone growth in China and Russia helped increase overall volumes in the quarter, but demand for smartphones stalled in advanced markets such as Western Europe and the US as many users waited for new flagship devices featuring new versions of the key operating systems."

Cozza continues to point out that Q3 slowdowns also occurred in Latin American, the Middle East and Africa as consumers choose to wait for the arrival of the holiday season and new models including the iPhone 4S.