Global smartphone sales for 2011 rose by 58 percent on the previous year to 472 million units, new figures show.

The high-end handsets accounted for 31 percent of all mobile device sales last year, according to Gartner's research.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, smartphone sales increased by 47.3 percent on the same period of 2010 to 149 million units, boosted by record sales of the Apple iPhone.

Apple launched its latest iPhone 4S handset in October, and overtook LG during the quarter to become the world's top smartphone vendor with a 23.8 percent market share. It also held the largest market share for the full year, at 19 percent.

Gartner's principal research analyst, Roberta Cozza, said: "Western Europe and North America led most of the smartphone growth for Apple during the fourth quarter of 2011.

"In Western Europe, the spike in iPhone sales in the fourth quarter saved the overall smartphone market after two consecutive quarters of slow sales."