Smart Phone Sales Up 67% in Europe

In 2011, demand for mobile phones increased by 67 percent, according to analysts at GfK.

In 2011, 258 million handsets were bought by European consumers, a 3.2 percent increase on 2010.

In 2010, smartphones only constituted 22 percent of the sales market, but in 2011 this figure increased to 36 percent. In December 2011, the share climbed to 45 percent.

Retailers in all 25 surveyed countries in Europe registered high double-digit sales, ranging between 35 percent in the United Kingdom and 105 percent in the Eurasian countries of Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey and the Ukraine.

With a volume share of over 17 percent, the United Kingdom is the biggest market for smartphones in Europe at present, followed by Germany, Austria and Switzerland with 16 percent overall.

The average price of a mobile phone in Europe increased by eight percent between 2010 and 2011, to EUR 200. Demand for smartphones higher than ever before in Europe