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"A worldwide slowdown in mobile phone sales continued into the second quarter of 2012, as consumers put their upgrade plans on hold to wait for the widely rumoured launch of Apple&amp;#039;s new iPhone.  Global sales of mobile phones reached 419 million units in the three months to the end of June, but that was down 2.3% on the same period in 2011.  Smartphones, as opposed to the more basic feature phones, accounted for 36.7% of total mobile phone sales in the quarter, up 42.7% year-on-year, according to data from analysts Gartner. The Android mobile operating system extended its lead over Apple iOS in terms of market share in the three months to the end of June.  Android devices now account for 64.1% of the global market, up from 43.1% in the same period in 2011. Apple iOS also grew its share in the quarter by 0.6% year-on-year to 18.8%, but it was down 3.7 percentage points on the previous quarter. Gartner said that iOS&amp;#039;s slowed growth was down to users postponing their decision on upgrading their mobile device in anticipation of the upcoming launch of the so called &amp;#039;iPhone 5&amp;#039;.  The analysts believe that the arrival of the next iPhone, potentially on September 12, &amp;quot;should provide the greatest upgrade opportunity yet&amp;quot; for iPhone 4 users as the new handset is expected to bring a major redesign, including a larger 4-inch screen and revamped form factor.  &amp;quot;[Overall mobile phone] demand slowed further in the second quarter of 2012,&amp;quot; said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner.  &amp;quot;The challenging economic environment and users postponing upgrades to take advantage of high-profile device launches and promotions available later in the year slowed demand across markets. Demand of feature phones continued to decline, significantly weakening the overall mobile phone market. &amp;quot;High-profile smartphone launches from key manufacturers such as the anticipated Apple iPhone 5, along with Chinese manufacturers pushing 3G and preparing for major device launches in the second half of 2012, will drive the smartphone market upward. However, feature phones will continue to see pressure.&amp;quot; In the second quarter of 2012, Samsung cemented its position as the biggest seller of phones in the world, after its sales increased by 29.5% on the same period in 2011.  Samsung has 21.6% of the global market, ahead of struggling Finnish giant Nokia with 19.9% and Apple with 6.9%. Chinese maufacturer ZTE gatecrashed the top five, taking fourth place with a 4.3% share ahead of LG, with 3.4%.  Samsung&amp;#039;s success has largely been driven by smartphones, which accounted for 50.4% of its quarterly sales, or 45.6m units. The firm was particularly buoyed by the release of the Galaxy S3 in late May, which is reported to have already sold more than 10m units and could sell 20m by the autumn.  By contrast, Apple&amp;#039;s iPhone suffered a weaker second quarter as sales fell 12.6% from the record-breaking first quarter - although shipments were still up 47.4% year-on-year.  With still no firm announcement on the iPhone 5 launch date, Gartner feels that Apple could suffer again in the third quarter, but that is expected to change as we move into the Christmas shopping season when a new iPhone will more than likely be on the shelves. &amp;quot;Samsung and Apple continued to dominate the smartphone market, together taking about half the market share, and widening the gap to other manufacturers. No other smartphone vendors had share close to 10%,&amp;quot; Gupta said. &amp;quot;In the race to be top smartphone manufacturer in 2012, Samsung has consistently increased its lead over Apple, and its open OS market share increased to one-and-a-half times that of Apple in the second quarter of 2012.&amp;quot; Nokia, which lost its number one spot in the phone market to Samsung earlier in the year, rallied slightly by increasing its feature phone sales in the second quarter. However, the firm&amp;#039;s Windows Phone-powered Lumia range is still struggling to win over smartphone customers as a replacement for Android or iOS.  &amp;quot;Declining smartphone sales is worsening Nokia&amp;#039;s overall position, as it had already lost the No. 1 position to Samsung in the previous quarter and is facing reduced profitability due to continuous declining sales of premium smartphones,&amp;quot; said Gupta. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/smartphones/news/a399330/iphone-5-hype-leads-to-q2-mobile-phone-market-slump/>