Worldwide shipments of all mobile phones grew only 1% year on year during the second quarter of 2012, to reach 406.0m. Somewhat of a poor picture. But this disguises the number of smartphones that shipped during the same quarter. Of the 406m, 153.9m were smartphones, which is 38%. In 2Q11, 108.3m smartphones shipped, which formed 27% of all mobile phones shipped.

Increased ownership of smartphones means more people are using smartphones for shopping related activities. Latest research from Ofcom shows that 39% of all UK adults currently own a smartphone. Of these, more than half (57%) claim to have used their handset in some way when out shopping. This includes simple things such as taking a photo of a product (31%), to making online price comparisons (25%), acquiring more product information by scanning bar codes (21%), reading product reviews online (19%), and researching product features (19%).