Samsung, Android Top iOS as Buyers Wait for New iPhone

The helped boost Samsung during the second quarter, but anticipation about the next-gen iPhone led to weakening sales for Cupertino, according to new stats from Gartner.

Still, Samsung and Apple "continued to dominate the smartphone market, together taking about half the [worldwide] market share," Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, said in a statement.

Samsung and Apple increased their mobile phone market share over the last year, with Samsung jumping from 16.3 percent to 21.6 percent. Apple also saw a bump, from 4.6 percent to 6.9 percent. Nokia still came between them at No. 2, but the firm dropped from 22.8 percent market share last year to 19.9 percent this year.

"No other smartphone vendors had share close to 10 percent," Gupta said. "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."

Smartphone sales now make up 50.4 percent of Samsung mobile device sales, thanks to the strength of its Galaxy lineup.

Most of the devices sold - or 64.1 percent - were Android-based phones, up from 43.4 percent last year. Apple's iOS nabbed 18.8 percent of the market, which was only up slightly from the 18.2 percent it had last year. Symbian rounded out the top three, but only had 5.9 percent - down from 22.1 percent in 2011.

RIM dropped from 11.7 percent to 5.2 percent during the same time period. Microsoft's mobile platform, however, saw an increase from 1.6 percent to 2.7 percent.

While overall mobile phone sales dropped 2.3 percent from last year, smartphone sales skyrocketed 42.7 percent during the same time period, as shoppers ditched feature phones for more powerful gadgets. But as Apple - and carriers like AT&T and Verizon - , rumors about the next-gen iPhone have prompted buyers to hold back and wait for the new iPhone rather than picking up the iPhone 4 or .

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