Samsung extends lead in global mobile phone market

Samsung expanded its lead in the global mobile phone market during the second quarter of 2013, accounting for nearly 28 percent of all mobile phones shipped, according to new data released Thursday.

The South Korean electronics shipped 107 million handsets in a quarter that saw the sector's fastest expansion in a year, growing 4 percent annually to reach 386 million units, according to figures released Thursday by market researcher Strategy Analytics. Much of that growth was fueled by demand for entry-level Android devices in Asia and Latin America, researchers said.

"This was the mobile phone industry's fastest growth rate since the second quarter of 2012," Neil Shah, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, said in a statement that noted the previous second quarter logged 371.5 million units shipped.

While Samsung's global marketshare of mobile phone shipments grew from 25 percent in the second quarter, second-place Nokia lost nearly a third of its turf, falling from a 22.5 percent share in the second quarter of 2012 to 15.8 percent in this year's second quarter, Strategy Analytics.

Besides Samsung, Apple benefited from Nokia's decline, increasing from a 7 percent market share to an 8.1 percent share. Fourth-place LG also improved from 3.5 percent of global mobile phone shipments to 4.6 percent.

Strategy Analytics blamed Nokia's market share decline on fading demand for its feature phones and devices running the Finnish handset maker's largely abandoned Symbian operating system.

While Apple is currently stuck in third place, Strategy Analytics suggested it could increase its piece of the pie by releasing a much-rumored low-price iPhone.

"Apple's share of the mobile phone market is struggling to break through the 10 percent ceiling into double figures, and it will only be able to achieve this on a sustainable basis if it adds new iPhone models at lower price-points or with bigger screens in the future," senior analyst Woody Oh said in a statement.