Smartphone sales up, tablet sales down in NL

First quarter sales for smartphones in the Netherlands have gone up in 2014 4.1 percent from a year ago. This increase is worth 12 percent, Telecom reports.

In more than 80 percent of the market sales, consumers bought full-screen touch-screen smartphones, which is rapidly taking over the other forms of phone, with keyboards for example. Thin phones are also more popular, and screen size also plays a role in consumer preference.

After smartphones, and mobile phones, phablets are now 3 percent of the market . These are smartphones with a screen size bigger than 5.5 inches, but smaller than 7 inches.

Tablet sales also showed negative growth in the first quarter in pieces and turnover, which was also visible in the last months of last year. Tablet accessories, such as keyboards, are still selling, however.

Prepaid phone packs are decreasing. This is because sim-free handsets are almost equalling contract phones in number. In the same period of last year, prepaid and contract phone deals were sold most.

In the first three months of 2014, buying smartphones over the internet is becoming more popular than through the physical channel. More than a quarter of smartphone sales is now happening online. Last year, this was just over one-fifth of all sales.

According to Telecom, one of the buzzwords for the start of 2014 in the smartphone market is the NFC (Near Field Communication) feature, which makes it possible to establish radio communication between phones by either touching them together, or brining them no more than a few inches close to each other.