New york – Smartphone sales exceeded feature phone sales for the first time in the April-to-June period, according to research firm Gartner.Worldwide mobile phone sales totalled 435 million units. Smartphone sales accounted for 225 million units, up 46.5 per cent from the previous year. Feature phones totalled 210 million units, down 21 per cent.The highest smartphone growth rates came from Asia, Latin America and eastern Europe, the firm said.A smartphone is commonly defined as a device that has built-in applications and can connect to the Internet. In contrast, feature phones tend to perform fewer functions and are priced more cheaply."Smartphones accounted for 51.8 per cent of mobile phone sales in the second quarter of 2013, resulting in smartphone sales surpassing feature phone sales for the first time,” said Anshul Gupta, the principal research analyst at Gartner.