Worldwide sales of cell phones showed strong growth in the second quarter, but the top two vendors, Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc., lost market share to up-and-comers such as Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a research firm reported Thursday.
Nearly 164 million mobile phones were sold in the second quarter, up 2.5 percent from the previous quarter and 37 percent from a year ago, according to International Data Corp. of Framingham, Mass. The market had suffered a sequential drop in the first quarter because of seasonal factors.
Nokia's second-quarter share was 27.7 percent, down from the 29.3 percent that the Finnish company had in the first quarter, according to IDC. Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola held a 14.7 percent slice, down from 16.6 percent in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, South Korea-based Samsung moved up to 13.9 percent after claiming 13.1 percent in the first quarter. And with several new models expected to be released in the third quarter, Samsung could threaten Motorola's longtime hold on the No. 2 spot, IDC analyst David Linsalata said.
The next three vendors in the second quarter: Siemens AG and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, which each held 6.4 percent of the market, and LG Electronics Inc., with 6.1 percent.