Samsung captures top slot in global mobile market: Gartner

Samsung's mobile phone sales have reached 86.6 million units, a 25.9 percent increase from last year, as it took back the world's number one smartphone position from Apple, selling 38 million units worldwide, research firm Gartner announced today.

The Korean major dethroned Nokia, which could sell only 83.2 million units in the first quarter, a 22.7 percent drop. "Smartphone sales are becoming of paramount importance at a worldwide level. For example, smartphone volumes contributed to around 43.9 percent of the overall sales for Samsung as opposed to 16 percent for Nokia," Gartner principal research analyst Anshul Gupta said.

In addition, Samsung's Android-based smartphone sales in the first quarter represented more than 40 percent of Android-based smartphone sales worldwide, as no other vendor achieved more than a 10 percent share of the market, he said. Sales of smartphones continued to drive mobile device market growth, reaching 144.4 million units in the first quarter, up 44.7 percent year-over-year. This quarter also saw the top two smartphone vendors, Apple and Samsung, raising their combined share to 49.3 percent, up from 29.3 percent in the first quarter of 2011, and widening their lead over Nokia, which saw its smartphone market share drop to 9.2 percent.

Meanwhile, Nokia's overall handset sales reached 83.2 million units in the first quarter, a 22.7 percent drop from the first quarter of 2011, an official release said. The release also said driven by the continued success of the iPhone 4S, Apple's sales grew 96.2 percent in the first quarter as the new model expanded into new markets and carriers.

RIM sold 9.9 million handsets in the first quarter, with its global share declining to 2.4 percent as competition increased in its international market strongholds, the release said. "RIM desperately needs to deliver winning BlackBerry 10 products to retain users and stay competitive. This will be very challenging, because BlackBerry 10 lacks strong developer support, and a new BB10 device will only be available in the fourth quarter of 2012," the release said.

In the smartphone operating system market, Android accounted for 56.1 percent of sales in the first quarter. Gartner analysts said the smartphone market has become highly commoditised and differentiation is becoming a challenge for manufacturers, the release said.