Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company, announced today that worldwide sales of mobile phones declined 2.3% in second quarter to 419 million units, compared to the year-ago quarter. Smartphone sales, which accounted for 36.7% of total mobile phone sales, grew 42.7% in the second quarter.

A research analyst for Gartner said:

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.

Samsung’s mobile phone sales remained very strong in the second quarter, up 29.5% year over year, driven by record sales of Galaxy smartphones. Smartphones now account for 50.4% of all Samsung mobile devices.

Consumer demand for Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone weakened in the quarter. Sales fell 12.6% from the first quarter of 2012, though they were up 47.4% from a year ago. Sales results in the third quarter of 2012 will depend on when the iPhone 5 launches.

Nokia Corp.’s (NYSE: NOK) mobile phone sales slipped 14.8% in the second quarter, though its sales grew quarter-on-quarter.

In the smartphone OS market, Android extended its lead with an increase of 20.7% in market share in the second quarter. Apple’s iOS market share grew 0.6% year over year but declined 3.7% points quarter-on-quarter.

The report said:

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 percent. … 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.

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