Worldwide smartphone sales increased by 29 per cent in the first quarter of 2008, according to technology analyst Gartner.

Research carried out by the firm found sales in the US reached 7.3 million units during the period, a 106 per cent rise compared with last year.

Sales in Europe, Middle East, and Africa totalled 11.7 million units, a 38.7 percent increase.

Hugues De La Vergne, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at the company, said that the US smartphone market continued to expand despite the uncertain economic climate.

Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices, commented: "The beginning of the year was marked by announcements regarding touch screens, smartphone usability and application integration. These key trends had already emerged in the second half of 2007."

She went on to predict that these factors will continue to mature further during the year as more handset vendors and carriers look to make use of them to expand their portfolios.

Earlier this week, Gartner reported that worldwide external controller-based disk storage revenue rose to $4.3 billion (£2.15 billion) in the first quarter of 2008.


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