Samsung increases smartphone market share as Apple falters

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd grabbed more smartphone market share from archrival Apple Inc in the latest quarter, with sales of its phones jumping to account for one third of the global market.

Sales of the iPhone 5 helped Apple's volumes grow 6.6 percent to 37.4 million phones in the quarter from a year earlier, but that was not enough to stop its share of the market dropping to 17.3 percent from 23 percent, research firm IDC said.

(Also see: Apple ships record 47.8 million iPhones and 22.9 million iPads in Q1 2013)

A flood of cheaper Android-powered devices from the South Korean maker lifted its shipments about 60 percent to 70.7 million, giving it a 32.7 percent of the market, up from 28.8 percent a year earlier.

During the first quarter Samsung shipped more smartphones than the next four vendors combined, IDC said.

The research firm said it was eager to see how new phones from Samsung using its Tizen operating system will look and fit into the company's product line-up.

Of the top five vendors, only Apple lost market share, with LG Electronics Inc, Huawei and ZTE Corp making incremental gains.

(Also see: Smartphone quarterly shipments exceed feature phones for the first time)

© Thomson Reuters 2013