Global smartphones sales for the third quarter of 2012 increased by 46.9 percent year-on-year despite total mobile phone sales declining by 3.1 percent. According to analyst firm Gartner, smartphone sales hit 169.2 million during the quarter, accounting for 39.6 percent of the 428 million mobile phones sold during the period.

Despite the decline in total sales, Garner said there were positive signs for the industry, with demand rising in both emerging and mature markets following two sequential quarters of decline.

The launch of new devices saw replacement sales pick up in mature markets, according to Gartner principal research analyst Anshul Gupta, who added that smartphones were driving sales in China.

In terms of total mobile phone sales, Samsung led the way with 98.0 million sales (up 18.6 percent year-on-year), followed by Nokia, which sold 82.3 million units, a 21.9 percent decline. Nokia’s sales beat Gartner estimates due to the strong performance of the company’s Asha devices in developing markets.

Worldwide Mobile Device Sales to End Users by Vendor in 3Q12 (Thousands of Units)
Source: Gartner (November 2012)

Samsung extended its lead in the smartphone market with 55 million sales, giving it 32.5 percent of the smartphone market. Apple sold 23.6 million iPhones in the period, a 36.2 percent year-on-year improvement.

Apple and Samsung controlled 46.5 percent of the smartphone market, with a group of vendors “fighting over a distant third spot”, according to Gartner’s Gupta.

Nokia fell four places in the smartphone rankings to seventh, with 7.2 million sales. The recently launched Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia devices should halt this decline, according to Gartner, although significant improvement will not be seen until 2013.

RIM moved up to third place in the smartphone market with HTC fourth. However, continuing sales declines for both companies could see them struggle to retain their positions.

Android increased its OS market share by 19.9 percentage points to hit 72.4 percent during the third quarter. iOS held a 13.9 percent share, which Gartner expects to increase in the third quarter following the launch of the iPhone 5.

RIM’s BlackBerry OS climbed to third position despite its market share dropping to 5.3 percent ,from 11.0 percent in Q3 2011, as Symbian declined more dramatically from 16.9 percent to just 2.6 percent. Microsoft’s Windows Phone stood at 2.4 percent by the end of the period, up from 1.5 percent in the equivalent period in 2011.

Gartner predicts that the approach of Christmas will not provide the usual boost to mobile phone sales as consumers are cautious with their spending or find other devices, such as tablets, more appealing.