NEW YORK–Re­search firm IDC said more smart­phones than "dumb" phones are be­ing made this year, a mile­stone in a shift that's putting com­put­ing pow­er and In­ter­net ac­cess in mil­lions of hands world­wide.Man­u­fac­tur­ers shipped 216 mil­lion smart­phones world­wide in the first three months of this year, com­pared with 189 mil­lion reg­u­lar cell­phones, ac­cord­ing to a study IDC re­leased late Thurs­day. IDC said smart­phones made up 51.6 per cent of the 419 mil­lion mo­bile phones shipped.

In the US, smart­phones over­took reg­u­lar cell­phones in 2011. IDC an­a­lyst Ra­mon Lla­mas said that the shift to a glob­al ma­jor­i­ty of smart­phones is now be­ing dri­ven by con­sumers in de­vel­op­ing coun­tries such as Chi­na, In­dia and In­done­sia.The shift from phones pri­mar­i­ly de­signed for calls, and per­haps tex­ting, to ones with ad­vanced op­er­at­ing sys­tems and touch screens has roiled the cell­phone in­dus­try.

AP