The worldwide smartphone market has reached another milestone, shipping one billion units in a single year for the first time. According to IDC, vendors shipped a total of 1.0042 billion smartphones worldwide, up 38.4% from 725.3 million units in 2012. This aligns with IDC's most-recent forecast of 1.0104 billion units, a difference of less than 1%.

Smartphones accounted for 55.1% of all mobile phones shipped in 2013, up from 41.7% in 2012, said IDC. Worldwide mobile phone shipments totaled about 1.82 billion units in 2013, up 4.8% from the 1.74 billion units shipped in 2012.

"The sheer volume and strong growth attest to the smartphone's continued popularity in 2013," said Ramon Llamas, research manager with IDC's mobile phone team. "Total smartphone shipments reached 494.4 million units worldwide in 2011, and doubling that volume in just two years demonstrates strong end-user demand and vendor strategies to highlight smartphones."

"Among the top trends driving smartphone growth are large screen devices and low costs," said Ryan Reith, program director with IDC's worldwide quarterly mobile phone tracker. "Of the two, I have to say that low cost is the key difference maker. Cheap devices are not the attractive segment that normally grabs headlines, but IDC data shows this is the portion of the market that is driving volume. Markets like China and India are quickly moving toward a point where sub-$150 smartphones are the majority of shipments, bringing a solid computing experience to the hands of many."