Gartner Smartphone Survey 2014 shows global smartphone revenue is forecasted for a decline in 2014. The reason is due to cheaper devices flooding the market leading to fluctuations in average selling prices.

The survey was compiled by research firm Gartner said on Thursday.

One other discerning analysis is that top contenders in the industry Apple and Samsung are switching to cheaper models to be sold in other markets due to weaker demand in North America and Europe. The perfect example of this is the iPhone 5c, which is sold for a $100 in China. This price is relatively similar to the iPhone imitation clones in the local Chinese market.

Anshul Gupta, analyst at Gartner told Reuters, "Sales of high-end smartphones will slow as increasing sales of low- and mid-price smartphones in emerging markets will shift the product mix to lower-end devices"

Gupta added, "This will lead to a decline in average selling price and a slowdown in revenue growth."

Global smartphone sales were higher than cell phones in 2013, accounting for 53.6% of total sales in 2013 and 57.6 percent in Q4.

In 2014, smartphone sales are expected to jump to 1.2-1.3 billion devices from 968 million last year. Most of the phones from last year ran on Google's platform Android; that's about 760 million units or 78.4% total smartphones last year.

Jefferies analyst Lee Simpson said, "Samsung has to think about how to spread their sources, how to reinvent themselves and how they will have to innovate for the next year or two to protect their margin structures," adding, "strategies will have to change for handset vendors for this new era."

Apple's iOS was on fewer mobile phones this year - 15.6%, compared to 19% from year ago figures.

he weaker demand for expensive smartphones was demonstrated in Q4 by lower market share for Apple and Samsung and an increase of a whopping 85% in China's Huawei smartphones sales in overseas markets, Gartner reported.