Smartphone sales increased last year, but tablet shipments dropped significantly.
That is according to the latest data from tech research firm, IDC, which found overall the number of smartphones sold in 2016 was only up 2.3% compared to the previous year, reaching a total of 1.44 billion.
That is despite a significant 6.9% increase in sales during the final quarter of the year, buoyed by Christmas buying.
2015, in comparison, saw a 10.4% increase in annual sales.
The WorldWide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows sales over the last three months of 2016 were driven by robust demand in China, the US and Brazil.
Despite the year being the first in which iPhone sales fell, Apple beat Samsung to the top spot in the final quarter, amid strong sales of the iPhone 7.
IDC also points to surprise reductions in sales in certain developing regions and the growth of the Chinese smartphone vendors at both ends of the market as being significant developments during the past twelve months.
2017 on the other hand will be marked by a bounce in iPhone sales driven by the tenth anniversary edition, it says, as well as fresh growth in general smartphone sales in the Latin America and Middle East and Africa regions.
But while smartphone demand remained robust during 2016, tablet sales slumped further.
The fourth quarter of the year saw the ninth straight quarterly decline in shipments, with sales falling 20.1% year on year to 52.9 million.
Overall, there was a 15.6% drop in sales across the entire year, the second consecutive annual decline in shipments of the devices.
Much of the decline was caused by buyers seeing tablets without keyboards as increasingly irrelevant IDC says.
