Sales of mobile phones has taken a downturn, says market research firm Gartner in recent statistics.

In 2012, mobile phones were sold to end-users, a total of 1.75 billion units. The drop in 2011 was 1.7 per cent.

While smartphone sales continued its growth path and rose in the last quarter of a record 207.7 million units the device. Growth in the previous year was 38.3 per cent.

Basic phones sales continued to slow. During the fourth quarter were sold 264.4 basic units, representing 19.3 per cent drop in the previous year.

The last time the global mobile phone market dipped in 2009. This year, the decline in sales was driven by the difficult economic situation, with varying consumer preferences and intense competition, Gartner suspects.

“At the moment, none of the manufacturer is not clear number three global smartphone business,”

Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/puhelinten+myynti+notkahti++ensimmainen+kerta+sitten+2009n/a878522?s=u&wtm=tivi-13022013

Together, Apple and Samsung accounted for 103 percent of mobile phone profits in 2012, a number made possible because of losses incurred by rivals Motorola, Sony and Nokia.

Apple took a commanding 69 percent of handset profits last year, more than doubling the next closest company, Samsung, which accounted for 34 percent. Together, that gave the two companies more than 100 percent of the industry’s profits, according to research released on Wednesday by Canaccord Genuity.

As reported at Cablinginstall.com’s sister site, Lightwave, this year hasn’t been so bad for optical transceiver sales, earnings statements be damned, asserts the fiber-optic communications industry analysis firm LightCounting in a new report.

By the end of 2012, sales of 40/100G optical transceivers will have doubled, claims the firm. However, the analysis finds that 10 Gigabit Ethernet modules have represented the lion’s share of the market in 2012, accounting for more than 50% of sales. LightCounting says that 100 Gigabit Ethernet sales could exceed those of 10 Gigabit Ethernet devices by 2017 – provided transceiver developers succeed in creating and offering modules with smaller form factors and lower power consumption.