Gartner said that the mobile phone market saw weakened demand in the second quarter of 2012, as “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”.

While the smartphone market has continued to perform strongly (growing 42.7 percent), this has been coupled with a decline in the feature phone space, “significantly weakening the overall mobile phone market”.

According to the company, worldwide sales of mobile phones fell 2.3 percent to 419 million units. Smartphone sales now account for 36.7 percent of the total.

Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, said: "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".

In the second quarter, Samsung led the market with a 21.6 percent market share, ahead of 19.9 percent for Nokia.

While the South Korean giant saw its share bolstered off the back of the recent launch of the Galaxy SIII device, Nokia is “battling fiercely with white-box and new emerging device manufacturers to defend its feature phones sales”.