For the first time ever, annual growth in smartphone sales is estimated to be in a single digit - 7 percent on 1.5 billion units this year - down more than half from 14.4 percent last year. In 2010, the sales growth rate was a whopping 73 percent.

The projected single-digit sales growth rate is not a one-off aberration but a definite turn for the worse, a goodbye to double-digit rates, according to global market consultancy Gartner Inc.

Although sales are forecast to reach 1.9 billion units in 2020, not everything is hunky-dory in the global smartphones market.