Gfk has released a report on the global smartphone sales for 2014. Here are the findings from the report:

• 1.2 billion smartphones have been sold worldwide in 2014.
• Latin America is currently the fastest growing smartphone market with 59% year on year growth.
• 5”+ screen size sales grew 180% globally and forecasted to be the largest segment in 2015.
• Emerging markets will be core to sub-$100 smartphones which will have the largest market share.
• Q4 2-14 saw 346 million smartphones being sold as which is an increase of 19% compared to Q4 2013.
• Latin America saw the highest quarter sales of smartphones – 36 million units, an increase of 43% year on year.
• China will be the market leader for smartphones in the foreseeable future in terms of unit sales as well as sales value.
• China however saw very slow growth in second half of 2014.
• Unit sales oif smartphones went down and sales value has increased in China because of the increasing adoption of costly phones with bigger screens.
• 5” to 5.6” screen size devices increased in market share by 130% year on year in Q4 2014 and 150% for the full year.

• Global smartphone unit sales growth will slow down in 2015 and increase by only 14% as compared to 23% last year.
• Emerging markets will drive smartphone growth in 2015 due to heavy penetration in the low priced segments.
• >$150 market will decline in 2015, $150 – $100 market will remain stable will < $100 market will see huge growth.
• Middle East and Developing APAC forecasts a growth of 33% in unit terms due to migration feature phone to smartphones.

The complete report can be found here.