Smartphone shipments increased by 52.3 per cent in Q2 2013, compared to Q2 2012, according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.
Vendors shipped 237.9m units in the quarter, compared to the 156.2m units shipped in the year-ago quarter. The 52.3 per cent increase if the highest annual growth rate in five quarters. Second quarter shipments were up 10 per cent when compared to the 216.3m units shipped in Q1 2013.
Samsung was the leading smartphone vendor in Q2 2013, shipping 72.4m units. While this was almost 50 per cent more units than it shipped in Q2 2012, its market share fell from 32.2 per cent in Q2 2012 to 30.4 per cent share in the last quarter. Apple is in second place on 31.2m units, giving it a market share of 13.1 per cent (16.6 per cent in Q2 2012). LG is in third on 12.1m units/5.1 per cent (3.7 per cent); Lenovo in fourth on 11.3m units/4.7 per cent (3.1 per cent); and ZTE in fifth on 10.1m units/4.2 per cent (4.1 per cent).
“The smartphone market is still a rising tide thats lifting many ships,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst at IDC. “Though Samsung and Apple are the dominant players, the market is as fragmented as ever. There is ample opportunity for smartphone vendors with differentiated offerings.” 
Overall, the worldwide mobile phone market grew 6 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2013. Vendors shipped a total of 432.1m mobile phones in Q2 2013, compared to 407.7m units in Q2 2012. The Q2 2013 total was also slightly higher than the 428.8m units shipped in the first quarter of 2013.
The growth was partly driven by vendors from outside the Top 5, who experienced massive shipment growth that outpaced the overall market. Several vendors, including Alcatel and Huawei, had high double- and triple-digit growth rates in the second quarter for their Android-based offerings shipped to high-growth countries such as China and India. During the quarter, these vendors from outside the Top 5 accounted for 44.8 per cent of the overall shipment volume, up from 42.2 per cent in the same quarter a year ago.
