Smartphones, Large-Screened Cell Phone Sales Increase in 2014, Latin America Named Market's Fasting Growing Region

Analysts at Germany-based GfK report that global smartphone sales exceeded 1.2 billion units in 2014, which is a 23 percent increase from the year before.

GfK's 2014 sales tracking data shows Latin America is the fastest-growing region for smartphones, up 59 percent year-on-year.

Looking ahead, analysts predict sales will slow down to 14 percent in 2015, resulting in total sales of 1.368 billion devices.

"The slowdown forecast for 2015 is due to developed markets reaching saturation point. As a result, global smartphone unit growth will be only 14 percent this year, down from 23 percent in 2014," Kevin Walsh, Director of Trends and Forecasting at GfK, explained.

Walsh said that in emerging markets where consumers are more price-sensitive, pricing will continue to drop as well.

"We forecast emerging regions to drive growth in 2015 as smartphones further penetrate lower price points," he says. "GfK forecasts that smartphone price bands above $150 will see a decline in their market share. At the next level down, $100-150, sales will remain stable, but it is the cheaper smartphones priced below this point that will gain share."

Every region except for North America, Japan and Korea saw a decrease in the average selling price in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to Gfk.

The prices may be shrinking, but the screens are not. Unit sales of smartphones with screens 5 inches or larger grew 180 percent in 2014 and are expected to be the largest segment in 2015.

Latin America saw the most active buyers, with sales increasing by nearly 110 million, a rise of 59 percent. Emerging Asia Pacific countries took second place with 55 percent growth.

China experienced high volume but slower growth.

"China will remain the biggest market in terms of both unit and value sales for the foreseeable future," GfK said.

Total smartphone sales in China for the 2014 fourth quarter were $28 billion, an increase of 21 percent.

North America followed China with the largest number of smartphones sold in 2014 and had an above average growth of 28 percent.

GfK didn't publish data on which cellphone makers are doing well and which are not.