South Korea's Samsung has sustained its lead over Apple and Nokia as the world's top mobile vendor, according to the IDC.
The IDC's European Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker reports that despite Samsung's win, overall sales from all phone companies dropped by 1.9 percent.
"The second quarter was impacted by a weaker economic environment in Western Europe, which contributed to lower demand," said IDC's European Mobile Devices Research Manager Francisco Jeronimo.
He added, "The Samsung Galaxy S III was the only major product release in the second quarter, and therefore the biggest seller in the quarter, which contributed to Samsung's dominance in the market."
Samsung was accounted for 41 percent of total smartphone shipments.
Nokia and Apple were in second and third place. Reasons for Apple's lacking sales are pointed to the upcoming release of the iPhone 5, which is expected to debut on Sept. 12 during a press conference in San Francisco.
The news also comes as Samsung announced it has sold its 20 millionth Galaxy S3. It had reached 10 million in July, which was expected according to Samsung Mobile Business President J.K. Shin, partly due to strong demand in Europe.
Samsung also sold more devices in the US compared to other rival phones in August. The Galaxy S3 sold more than the iPhone 4S in all major carriers (AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon). The iPhone 4S is not available for T-Mobile customers but the Galaxy S3 did win there too.
As ZDNet compared it, the accomplishment is small compared to projections for the upcoming iPhone 5. The new Apple smartphone is expected to sell between six to 10 million iPhone 5 units by the end of its first week.
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