Samsung and Apple dominate 2013 smartphone market, but Lenovo on the up

Gartner stats reveal state of mobile market

Worldwide smartphone sales hit 968 million in 2013, an increase of 288 million on 2012, led by the ongoing dominance of Apple and Samsung.

Figures from research house Gartner for 2013 found that Samsung continues to dominate the market, as it saw sales climb from 206 million in 2012 to just shy of 300 million in 2013. This helped boost the firm's market share by 0.7 percent to 31 percent.

Meanwhile Apple also saw strong growth, rising by 20.5 million to 151 million sales in 2013. But it lost market share, falling from 19.1 percent to 15.6, as other vendors took small chunks of market from its position.

But Apple remains comfortably in second position, with Huawei in third place taking just a 4.8 percent market share and sales of 46.6 million sales. LG was just behind on 46.4 million. Lenovo rounded out the top five with 44 million in sales.

Gartner principal analyst Anshul Gupta said that Lenovo could well become a dominant force in 2014, though, after its move to acquire Google's Motorola unit for $2.91bn.

"The acquisition will provide Lenovo with patent protection and allow it to expand rapidly across the global market," he said. "We believe this deal is not just about entering into the US, but more about stepping out of China."

The rise of Lenovo will likely serve as another boost for the Android operating system, which really established its dominance of the market in 2013 as 759 million phones sold running Google's platform, equating to 78.4 percent of the market.

Apple's iOS had a 15.6 percent market share, although this was down from 19.1 percent.

Gupta said that despite Apple's slump, it had already taken action to try and boost its share in 2014.

"With Apple adding NTT Docomo in Japan for the first time in September 2013 and signing a deal with China Mobile during the quarter, we are already seeing an increased growth in the Japanese market and we should see the impact of the last deal in the first quarter of 2014."

Microsoft's Windows Phone platform rose slightly over the past 12 months, rising from 2.5 percent in 2012 to 3.2 percent in 2013. BlackBerry saw its share fall from five percent to 1.9.

The market is expected to grow massively in 2014, with Gartner predicting Android device sales alone will pass one billion, led by new high-end devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S5, due to be unveiled later in February.