Bits Blog: Smartphones Finally Surpass the Feature Phone

Jason Lee/Reuters A new report says that more than half of cellphone shipments in the first quarter were smartphones.

It’s finally time for the old-school clamshell cellphone to step aside and make way for the smartphone, which is now the most popular type of phone in the world.

IDC, the research firm, issued a report Thursday night that found that more than half of cellphone shipments in the first quarter were smartphones. Manufacturers shipped 418.6 million cellphones, 216.2 million of which were smartphones, says IDC.

Samsung, the top maker of smartphones, shipped 70.7 million, commanding 32.7 percent of the market in the first quarter. Apple was in second place with 37.4 million iPhones sold and 17.3 percent of the market. LG was in a distant third with 10.3 million smartphones, for 4.8 percent of the market.

Now that most people are buying smartphones, manufacturers may begin aiming at the few markets where the old-school feature phone is still prominent. A recent study by Nielsen suggests that the feature phone is still selling strong in India, Brazil and Russia. Apple has been rumored to be working on a lower-cost iPhone to aim at foreign markets, namely China.