Smartphones Continue to Sell Very Well

For the first time ever, smartphones outsold feature phones in the second quarter, according to research firm Gartner. During that period, 225 million smartphones were sold, representing a 46.5 percent gain over the same period last year. 

Feature phones, meanwhile, saw their sales drop by 21 percent year over year to land at 210 million units. Looking ahead, smartphones are expected to continue to outsell feature phones, and the gap between them should only grow larger.

But exactly how smartphones caught on so quickly over the past six years since Apple introduced the iPhone is an interesting question, though it's not that surprising that Apple, HTC, Motorola, Samsung and other mobile device makers keep finding ways to cram more new features and applications in handsets with touch-screens. The feature phones that most people were using a few years ago look pretty bare-bones by comparison.