Apple and Nokia lose market share as Samsung sees rise thanks to Galaxy

Samsung remains world's top phone maker on back of Android handsets

Apple's and Nokia's share of the global phone market has dropped in the wake of unprecedented growth by Korean firm Samsung, according to research house Gartner.

Gartner reported that over the last year, Apple's overall share of the mobile phone market, which includes feature phones as well as smartphones, fell by 1.2 percent. The figure means that iPhone sales now account for 7.8 percent of all mobile phone sales, with the firm shifting 38.8 million units in the first quarter of 2013.

Gartner principal analyst Anshul Gupta said the decrease was because of a failure by Apple to lure new smartphone users to its platform. "Apple is faced with the challenge of being increasingly dependent on the replacement market as its addressable market is capped. The next two quarters will also be challenging, as no new products are expected to be coming before the third quarter of 2013," said Gupta.

Finnish firm Nokia also suffered a significant dip in its market share, which dropped five percent in Q1 2013. The lull came despite a small increase in sales of its flagship Lumia Windows Phones, which boasted 5.1 million sales in the quarter.

Samsung remained the top-selling phone maker, with a 2.5 percent year-on-year increase in sales during the period. The increase was mainly due to increased interest in its flagship range of Galaxy Android smartphones. The Korean firm currently speaks for 30.8 percent of the smartphone market, a 3.2 percent increase on its share in the same period last year.

Gupta said the release of Samsung's new Galaxy S4 smartphone will likely lead to a similar sales boom. "We expect the new Galaxy S4 to be very popular despite being more of an evolution than a truly revolutionary device compared to the S3."

The firm's mixed fortunes mirrored that of the global mobile phone market as a whole. Gartner reported that global sales slowed to 426 million, marking a modest 0.7 percent growth in the market. The lull is largely due to diminished interest in older feature phones. Gartner's findings mirror those of competing research house IDC, which reported that smartphone sales overtook feature phone sales for the first time ever last month.