UK mobile device sales will fall by 5m units in 2014 – report

27 million mobile phones and 12 million tablets will be sold in the UK this year – some five million devices fewer than 2013, predicts CCS Insight.

The analyst also estimates mobile phone sales will drop 11 per cent this year, while tablet sales will fall 14 per cent. Sales of mobile phones dropped 20 per cent in the first months of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013. Meanwhile, tablet sales, which broke all records in previous quarters, slumped 17 per cent.

Marina Koytcheva, director of forecasting at CCS Insight, said: "The slowdown in tablet sales should come as no surprise to the industry. We warned back in December that the spectacular tablet growth we’ve been seeing in the last two years was unsustainable. With replacement rates for tablets slower than those of smartphones, a temporary lull was inevitable."

PCR has more details.